Glenveagh acquires four new sites for 2,780 homes

Housebuilder Glenveagh has announced the acquisition of four new sites capable of delivering 2,780 homes at a combined cost of €120 million.

The company, which is listed on Euronext Dublin and the London Stock Exchange, held its annual general meeting in Dublin on Friday.

Ahead of the agm, Glenveagh issued a trading statement in which it said it was “ahead of schedule” in delivering its key IPO targets. In terms of land acquisitions, €404 million of capital has now been deployed in land assets since last October’s IPO.

Glenveagh announced four further substantial land acquisitions for Homes and Living departments.

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Homes has exchanged contracts to acquire a 4.6-hectare site in Cork’s Docklands with the potential to deliver up to 1,000 residential homes. The exact purchase price is “commercially sensitive” but is in excess of €15 million.

Homes has also exchanged contracts to acquire a 16.2 hectare site of zoned residential land in the greater Dublin area which has the potential to deliver about 400 residential homes subject to planning. The purchase price is in excess of €20 million.

The acquisition “further strengthens” Glenveagh’s focus on delivering starter homes in the region in proximity to transportation nodes. The group acquired the site off-market.

Homes has furthermore signed an “unconditional legal contract” to acquire a large landbank in the greater Dublin area which has the potential to deliver up to 700 residential homes subject to planning. The purchase is in excess of €9 million.

All three acquisition are expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year.

In terms of its Living department, Glenveagh has exchanged contracts on the underlying loan package secured against Castleforbes Business Park, a 2.44 hectare site in Dublin’s north docklands.

Living intends to take control of the Castleforbes site, having also acquired 100 per cent of the shares in the site’s associated management company, through a consensual “loan to own” transaction.

Once controlled, Castleforbes has the potential to deliver more than 650 homes, subject to planning. The purchase price is in the region of €60 million. The transaction is Glenveagh’s second major acquisition in Dublin’s north docklands.

Glenveagh’s landbank now comprises of 10,120 homes, 31 per cent of which are shovel-ready with 97 per cent zoned residential.

In terms of outlook, Glenveagh said the market backdrop “remains very favourable” with significant demand for housing, particularly starter homes, “clearly evident” across the group’s selling sites.

“A number of significant land opportunities are expected to be brought to market by various parties over the summer months,” it said.

Glenveagh co-founder and chief executive Justin Bickle said the company enjoys a “strong balance sheet, construction operations of scale, and an attractive pipeline of residential land opportunities”.

“Since last October when we created Glenveagh, we have made a fast start in turning land into built stock in a very favourable selling market,” he said.

“Using timber frames to construct our houses, benefiting from a strong and growing network of sub-contractors, and having assembled a sector-leading management team with a culture of innovation and capital discipline, we are well on our way to becoming a volume homebuilder and the leading residential delivery platform in Ireland.

“While we expect the current favourable market conditions to continue for our core Homes business, in parallel through our Living division we are seeking to deliver mixed-tenure solutions, to address the public housing crisis.

“We believe that the combination of our Homes and Living divisions allow us to access both consumer and institutional demand for modern, well-built residential product in Ireland, and help diversify risk across the cycle.”