Hibernia Real Estate Group subsidiaries acquire Dundrum apartments for €122m

Having offered the 293 rental apartments it owns in the south Dublin suburb of Dundrum for sale through agent CBRE at a guide price of between €140 million and €150 million earlier this year, Hibernia Real Estate Group (formerly Hibernia Reit) has decided to hold on to the portfolio and take advantage of the unprecedented demand for rental accommodation in the capital.

While the company is understood to have received offers towards the end of June from parties which market sources described as “credible”, it refused to entertain any of the bidders. The Irish Times understands that at least one of the initial offers for the portfolio came in at over €133 million, and would likely have been improved upon had the sales process been allowed to continue.

Hibernia’s decision to hold on to the Dundrum apartments would appear to have been rubberstamped just weeks later. An examination of the Property Price Register shows that the company sold the units it owns at Dundrum View and Wyckham Point for a total of €122.35 million on July 7 last.

Asked for comment on the matter, a spokesman for Hibernia Real Estate Group said: “Hibernia Real Estate Group has recently undertaken a planned corporate restructuring following its acquisition by Brookfield. This has involved the refinancing of certain assets and their transfer to subsidiary companies.”

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The spokesman declined to comment further when asked if the sale and transfer of the Dundrum apartments to its subsidiaries had been a tax-neutral transaction.

The 293 units and 114 car-parking spaces at Dundrum View and Wyckham Point are understood to have cost the then Hibernia Reit about €115 million in total – or an average of €392,491 per unit – between their acquisition in 2014 and 2015 and the completion of the unfinished apartments in the latter development.