Two Irish investors have paid €1.75 million – €150,000 above the guide price – for a former Bank of Ireland building next to Clerys department store on Dublin’s O’Connell Street which is rented by a dental practice. The investment will show an initial yield of 7.5 per cent, rising to 8.75 per cent in 2015.

The five-storey Edwardian building, sold by Savills for receiver David Carson of Deloitte, is rented to Xeon Dental Services trading as Smiles Dental Spa on a 35-year lease from 2006 at a rent of €160,000 per annum.

Dessie Kilkenny of Savills said they had received more than 100 enquiries, most of them from private investors in this country as well as others from the UK, US, Holland, Switzerland and New Zealand.

There were 35 property inspections and 15 investors made offers on the building, several of them above the €1.6 million guide price. Clare-based Brian Lohan Financial advised the two Irish purchasers.

Kilkenny said the sale was an excellent barometer of the depth of interest in small to medium-sized investments in central Dublin. This asset had particular appeal because it was seen as a landmark property with a long unexpired lease.