More than 700 apartments and several development sites across Dublin are to be auctioned off by Nama this week as the State agency seeks to take advantage of strong investor demand for property in the city.
The Sunday Business Post reports that the portfolio will be placed on the market this week. It forms part of Nama's strategy of bringing €250 million of assets to the market each quarter.
It says that apartments at the Beacon South Quarter in Sandyford, Co Dublin, will be included, as well as units in Lansdowne Gate in Drimnagh.
Apartments in the Baker's Yard development in the north inner city will also form part of the sale.
Brehon and O'Neill to make cut for Mount Juliet
Brehon Capital Partners, a Dublin investment group, and entrepreneur Emmet O'Neill are finalising a €15 million deal to buy the Mount Juliet resort in Kilkenny, the Sunday Times reports.
The deal could be completed as early as this week, according to the newspaper, and includes a five-star hotel and golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. It has been in the ownership of the Mahony family since 1987.
Brehon and O'Neill – who recently sold his Smiles Dental group for €37 million – are understood to have fought off competition from John Malone, the billionaire chairman of cable company Liberty Global.
Sex and drugs could give GDP a much-needed lift
The value of illegal activities such as drug dealing and prostitution will soon be measured as part of gross domestic product calculations by the Central Statistics Office, the Sunday Independent reports.
The change is due to an EU-wide move to make national accounts more comparable.
It could prove helpful in meeting EU fiscal targets, which seek to prevent member states’ deficits exceeding 3 per cent of GDP.
A similar move in the UK gave official figures a £10 billion (€12.23 billion) boost, or 0.7 per cent of its GDP.
Super-port plan looks set to be scuppered
Plans for a €300 million port at Bremore in north Co Dublin may be scuttled under draft legislation to be brought before the Dáil this week.
The Sunday Times reports that the Harbours Bill (2014) will declare Dublin Port the "only port of national significance" on the east coast.
The Bremore super-port plans surfaced in 2006, promoted by Treasury Holdings’ division Castle Market Holdings. It aimed to develop a “world-class deepwater port” and business park outside Dublin.
