Foreign tech staff snap up docks deals

DOCKLANDS apartments once earmarked for those on the affordable housing list have been sold at a steep discount, the majority of them to foreign IT workers.

Fourteen aparments at Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2, have been sold by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), at prices between €90,000 and €209,000, Most are located in Grand Canal Residence, a building that fronts onto Grand Canal Square, beside the theatre.

The DDDA had failed to find buyers for them through its affordable housing programme and had put them on the open market earlier this year. While some of the units sold, the DDDA decided to slash prices on the remaining units in mid July. After just two open viewings, all were snapped up, many of them by workers in the dockland’s burgeoning tech industry.

One-bedroom units were cut to €90,000 (down from €110,000 earlier this year) while two-beds that had been priced at €185,000 in May were cut by an additional €40,000. Three-bedroom units that had been €229,000 were cut to €205,000.

Selling agent Lisney has taken deposits on all 14 units and director John O’Sullivan says that the “vast majority of the buyers are young foreign workers with jobs in the area”. The agency now has a waiting list of over 100 people who are hoping for a cancellation, again, many of them non-Irish. “Perhaps they are seeing the value that Irish buyers don’t see.”

The apartments were part of the DDDA’s affordable housing allocation to be sold to workers on the housing list, at a discount from market value but with certain restrictions on resale.

One restriction remains – the units are only available to those earning less than €58,000. This would be considered a generous salary by many of the tech companies who are now based in Ireland.

Google, which employs over 2,000 people in the docklands area, pays many of its workers between €25,000 and €40,000, though the job comes with considerable perks, such as free meals, subsidised bikes and gym membership.