A new benchmark for office investments has been set with the sale of a number of Dublin office properties by the Construction Federation Executive Pension Fund. A private investor is understood to have paid around £1.4 million (the agents had been quoting £650,000 for it) for a 2,700 sq ft Victorian building in Leeson Park, at an initial yield of about 2.5 per cent. The rent of £36,000 is expected to increase shortly to £45,000, bringing the yield up to 3 per cent.

Another private investor can look forward to a similar yield from another Victorian building at 4 Northbrook Road, which is occupied by the National Safety Council at a rent of £24,500. Here again the agents Jones Lang Wootton had been quoting around £400,000, but the purchaser paid over £900,000 for it. The next rent review is due in 1999. Another investor did somewhat better when he paid £1.6 million - twice the guide price - for Dame Court, an 8,500 sq ft building at 15/16 Dame Court which is let to Telecom Eireann at £62,000 per annum. The initial yield here is 3.6 per cent, but a rent review is overdue.