Listed Irish property groups due to deliver 2,000 new homes this year

Listed builders here will offer about 2,000 new homes for sale or rent this year, some 9 per cent of the total 22,000 dwellings that are expected to be completed in the Republic over the coming 12 months.

Several companies that in recent years tapped investors for cash to build new homes by launching on the Irish Stock Exchange plan to step up completion and sales of dwellings in 2019.

Between them, four listed companies are likely to build and sell about 2,000 properties this year, with an aggregate value of about €700 million, according to research by The Irish Times.

Glenveagh Properties, the most recently floated business, aims to sell 725 new dwellings this year, almost treble the 275 that it completed and sold in 2018, which was ahead of its original target of 250.

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Run by chief executive Justin Bickle, Glenveagh began building 800 houses and apartments across 14 sites, mainly in the greater Dublin area last year.

Last week it announced that it was paying €25 million for a site in Cork that could hold up to 500 properties. It expects buyers to pay between €340,000 and €370,000 for new homes this year.

Target

Cairn Homes sold about 800 dwellings last year and is working towards a target of 1,500 annually from 2021 onwards. While the company has not given a precise figure for 2019, sources suggest that its total could approach the 1,000 mark over the coming 12 months.

Michael Stanley-led Cairn is also due to begin work this year on the site it bought at Montrose in Dublin from State broadcaster RTÉ for €107 million in 2017. That will hold up to 600 homes.

House builder Abbey, now the oldest such company listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, intends to sell 150 new houses on several sites in 2019 – 100 in Co Meath, 25 in Dublin and 25 in Laois.

The company owns enough land in the Republic to hold 600 to 700 new homes. Most of it is located in areas where demand is high, such as the greater Dublin area.

Chief executive Charles Gallagher recently said that the company intended to seek permission to build on some of its sites this year.

Listed landlord, Irish Residential Properties (Ires) Reit, is bringing more than 90 homes at Hansfield Wood in Dublin that it bought late last year to the market. The company, which was renting 2,608 apartments at an average of €1,539 a-month at the end of June, has a number of development plans.

These include further building at Hansfield and more than 400 homes in Rockbrook in Sandyford in south Dublin. However, Ires expects to complete and begin renting from those projects in 2020 and 2021.

Prospective tenants

Outside the listed companies, another rental specialist, US property player Kennedy Wilson, intends to offer 203 properties to prospective tenants in 2019.

Of those, 190 will be at Capital Docks, the tower block on the south side of the Liffey that the company is building in partnership with State agency Nama. The remaining 13 will be in Officers’ Mess, part of the latest phase of its Clancy Quay development in Dublin 8.

Elsewhere, another US player, Hines, and its Dutch pension fund partner APG, are seeking sites to build 3,000 apartments that the pair intend to rent out. They have begun work on 1,269 homes in Cherrywood.

Hines and APG recently emerged as the backers of developer Ciaran Larkin, who was seeking to regain control of the Player's site on Dublin' southside from Nama. The premises once had planning for 750 apartments.