Shops on Castle Market and Drury Street go for €450,000 above guide

As estate agents report an ever increasing number of private investors on the lookout for retail investments in Dublin’s south inner city, there are ongoing signs of new benchmarks and higher values on a fairly broad scale.

Private investors continue to concentrate on properties s valued below €5 million.

Leading property developer Francis Rhatigan is the latest beneficiary of the rising values after selling three adjoining shops at 6/7 Castle Market and 32 Drury Street for €3.25 million – €450,000 above the guide price. The successful bidder, a private Irish investor, has settled for a net return of 4.47 per cent.

The Lisney agency will be next to test the retail market when it auctions the Nourish building at 16 Wicklow Street on March 14th. The already agreed €2.4 million guide price will reflect a net initial yield of 4.8 per cent, according to selling agent Christopher Belton of Lisney.

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Ben Pearson of Agar reported widespread interest in the three Rhatigan investments: Cullen & Co Jewellers, with dual frontage on to Castle Market and Drury Street; the adjoining Nail & Beauty Salon at 6 Castle Market; and Blazing Salads on the opposite side of the jewellery store at 42 Drury Street.

The combined rental income of €157,500 seems set to rise once a review of the jewellers outlet takes place in summer 2019. Tenants Charlie Cullen and Suzanne Gilhooly currently pay €65,000 plus VAT for 154sq m (1,658sq ft) on three levels. Nail & Beauty pays €50,000 for 69sq m (742sq ft) on two levels, while Blazing Salads is responsible for a rent of €42,500 for 89sq m (957sq ft) on three levels.

The four-storey over-basement Wicklow Street premises to be offered for sale through Lisney is located around 100m from Grafton Street and has a net internal area of 240sq m (2,580sq ft).

It is let to the General Health Food Store under a 35-year lease from 1993 with 10.4 years still to run. The current “rack rent” of €125,000 per annum will be subject to reviews in 2021 and 2026. The company has its head office on the two top floors in the distinctive Wicklow Street building and currently operates eight stores in all.

Three recent sales on Wicklow Street have underlined the strong prices available for properties there. No 26 was sold for marginally over €2 million (5.13 per cent) because it is probably over-rented at €112,000 per annum.

St Andrew’s House, which also changed hands towards the end of last year, made €11.33 million on foot of a rent of €532,000 and a yield of 4.5 per cent. The earlier sale of 19 Wicklow Street for just over €2 million reflected a net initial return of 4.66 per cent and a rent of €103,100.

Just before Christmas the four-storey, over-basement, mid-terrace retail building occupied by Eddie Rockets at 7 South Anne Street was sold through Cushman & Wakefield for just over €4.65 million, equating to a net yield of 4.84 per cent. The business currently pays a rent of €244,265. Less than three years earlier, Alan Conway of Always Consulting bought the building for €3.3 million on behalf of a group of investors.