InvestmentsTreasury Holdings has paid €30 million for a block of 40 vacant apartments at Lad Lane, off Baggot Street in Dublin 2.

Hamilton Osborne King had been quoting over €23 million for the five-storey block which has 40 car-parking spaces at ground floor level.

The selling price works out at about €825,000 per unit once stamp duty and legal costs are taken into account.

That will be seen as a particularly strong price, especially as 25 of the apartments are one-bedroom units; the remainder are two-bedroom homes.

However, the new owner is clearly banking on getting planning permission to add at least two floors to accommodate another 15 apartments.

The one-bedroom apartments are generally larger than in most new developments having a floor area of mainly 42-52.4sq m (452-565sq ft) while the two-bedroom units vary from 60.6-77sq m (653-829sq ft).

Although the apartments are in need of some upgrading, they have an attractive layout and are entered from impressively wide corridors.

There should be little difficulty in securing permission to add two floors to bring the block up to the height of the adjoining IDA headquarters.

The 12-storey Fitzwilton House offices could also be used as a planning precedent.