Worth the Investment

Address: 4 Emmet Road, Inchicore, Dublin 8.

Agent: Lowe & Associates.

Property type: three-bed apartment and commercial offices at €500,000.

What do you get? A former RIC barracks. The ground floor has an entrance hall, two rooms, cloakroom, kitchen, three toilet cubicles and an internal courtyard. Upstairs, the apartment has an entrance hall, open-plan livingroom and kitchen and three double bedrooms. The building has been rewired and has an alarm. The property is over 121sq m (1,300sq ft) with a rear small munitions store. Downstairs is laid out as crèche, but is no longer suitable for this use.

How much will it cost? With stamp duty at 9 per cent and legal fees of 0.5 per cent plus Vat, the acquisition cost is €548,025. For an investor requiring a 90 per cent mortgage of 3.1 per cent over 20 years, the annual repayment of €30,219 will leave a surplus of €581. This assumes an annual rent of €30,800, taking into account one month's void and one month's costs. On an interest-only mortgage, the annual repayment would be €13,950 leaving a surplus of €16,859 per annum.

Potential: Lowe and Associates say the monthly rental income would be around €1,400 for each unit, which on a 90 per cent mortgage represents a yield of 6.2 per cent.

Verdict: a good proposition but has been on the market for some time.

Calculations by Simply Mortgages