THE UK insurance company which is going into competition with VHI has taken a 25-year lease of a Georgian office building at 12 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2. The company, British United Provident Association (BUPA), will be paying a rent of £55,00 per annum the four-storey over basement building, which has 4,500 square feet. It has four car spaces. Patrick Curran of Harrington Bannon said the building, which is owned by a private investor, is one of the finest in the square.

The same agents sold the building last September for close to £600,000. It had been owned for many years by hair-products company Swarzkopf.