Peter McVerry Trust paid €1.8m for property sold for €970,000 months earlier

The Peter McVerry Trust bought a property containing six studio apartments in Dublin for €1.8 million earlier this year, nearly double the price the building sold for five months previous.

The Georgian property, 59A Inchicore Road, Dublin 8, had been renovated before being sold on to the Peter McVerry Trust at a significant mark-up on the price.

The crisis-hit homelessness charity paid €1.8 million to buy the property in April this year. It had previously sold for €970,000 in November 2022.

Land registry records show the trust bought 59A Inchicore Road from Melstar Ltd, a company set up a month before it purchased the property last year.

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Melstar paid €970,000 for the two-storey building in late November 2022, according to an entry on a register of residential property sales.

The six studio apartments in the building were renovated over the following four months, before the property was put back on the market.

Records show the Peter McVerry Trust paid €1.8 million for 59A Inchicore Road in late April 2023 and is the current owner of the site, which it is using for accommodation.

One source involved in the sale when the property was bought by Melstar Ltd last year said the building “needed work done” at that stage.

The Peter McVerry Trust, one of the largest providers of homeless services in the State, did not respond to requests for comment on the property deal.

The charity is facing a major financial crisis, with a shortfall in income and significant debts bringing it close to collapse in recent months.

It has sought a bailout of €8 million from the State, which officials from the Department of Housing and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) are currently considering.

In recent correspondence. officials advised Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien that the charity had outlined it would need €2.3 million to sustain its operations in the short term.

It was agreed late last week that some interim emergency funding should be released to the charity, while discussions are ongoing about a broader bailout by the State.

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A spokeswoman for the DRHE said it was agreed the agency would “release a payment for homeless services” to the trust, in advance of Mr O’Brien considering “broader recommendations” from officials.

“The immediate priority is the continuity of services to persons experiencing homelessness. To this end, the DRHE will provide the trust with sufficient funding to ensure that homeless services will not be interrupted in the short term,” the spokeswoman said.

Meetings of an oversight group of officials considering the matter have discussed past financial shortcomings that would need to be addressed at the charity going forward.

[ Peter McVerry Trust has been bailing the Government out for a decade. It’s time the favour was repaid ]

One department source said it appeared certain routine financial practices, such as raising purchase orders for services to be carried out, had not been happening “on a timely basis” in the past.

The oversight group has discussed potential income that could be raised from invoices the trust had not yet submitted to public funders for services it was providing. It is understood the trust is also examining other funding options, such as securing a loan.

The charity has sold property, including a site used for homeless accommodation in north Dublin, which raised €1 million, with plans for further property sales to raise another €5.8 million.

The trust reported an income last year of about €60 million, the majority of which came from State funding.