Around the Block:Dublin's commercial agents will be as sick as parrots this morning to discover that the sale of the €100 million Veterinary College in Ballsbridge is not to be handled by any of their teams of surveyors but by one of the smallest agencies in the city.
The Dublin office of UK agents Lambert Smith Hampton has emerged as the surprise choice to handle the sale of the most valuable State property asset ever. Five other agencies also pitched for the sale but the OPW may have settled for LSH, not only because of its marketing skills, but also as it was prepared to settle for a modest fee - but not the lowest.
Naturally, the big agencies would not like to be seen cutting their fees to the bone lest this might catch on. Four years ago, Pat Nolan of Hamilton Osborne King got a ribbing when he settled for a €7,618 fee for selling Clancy Barracks. No sooner had he collected his cheque, when the payment was disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act. The OPW will be happy to run with LSH for another good reason. Over a year ago it also handled the sale of the Department of Justice HQ on St Stephen's Green and did exceptionally well by getting a whopping €52.3 million for the ugliest building on the green. The buyer, Garret Kellerher, is now putting a brand new façade on it, in the hope of attracting a blue chip tenant.
Whatever the fee will be for selling the Veterinary College it will fall well short of the €825,000 payment made to Ronan Webster of Gunne for selling the adjoining 4.85-acre Jurys site to Sean Dunne. Luckily for Ronan, there's more to come. He's also expected to look after the two-acre Berkeley Court site, but no time scale has been set.
Superpower arrives?
Should the heavy hitters of the domestic property scene be shaking in their shoes? Will Sherry FitzGerald, HOK, Lisney, DNG et al lose sleep over the latest foray from abroad which is promising to "shake-up the Irish property scene". Coldwell Banker - "the world's largest real estate corporation" - launched its Irish operations this week, opening prestigious offices in Dublin with the promise (threat?) to sign up 50 franchise offices within three years. Coldwell is aggressively challenging the established Irish property market, accusing it of poor standards, lack of "customer focus" and promising "for the first time to put buyers needs first". "The Irish public gets a raw deal from the archaic practices prevalent in the Irish property industry," says Wayne Vandenburg, CEO of Coldwell Banker Europe.
CB is going for the jugular, singling out sensitive areas of gazumping and deceitfully low estimates used by estate agents to lure bidders at auctions. Clearly, there is a public backlash here, exploitable by any new kid on the block, with the latest entrant promising to "radically overhaul the quality of service" to the Irish consumer. They value the expanding Irish property cake at €10 billion, which may explain their arrival.
Around the Block, however, sees two problems for that high-sounding American rhetoric. One is timing. Given the reality of recent US promises in New Orleans and abroad in Iraq, this may not be the most convincing time to trumpet American logistical values.
Secondly, the Irish estate agents - sensing such franchising inroads - have already copper-fastened extensive networks through a number of strong franchises.
Picture perfect in SA
Next time you pass a Spectra Foto Shop, spare a thought for its founder, Xavier McAuliffe, who made a fortune out of the "Instamatic" camera craze. McAuliffe went through some personal tragedies at home and looked further afield to South Africa, where his expertise has been applied to the property market. Not forgetting his roots, his latest and spectacular enterprise is called Hibernian Towers - a 22-storey beachfront scheme in Cape Town.
Owing something in style and title to the Trump Towers in New York, McAuliffe's mix of retail, office and residential has already sold out on several floors, with residential prices from around €275,000 for about 115sq m (1,200sq ft), good value by Irish standards. For that level of investment, you also get indoor communal swimming, sauna and gym facilities, views over the Cape and access to six golf courses.
There is, of course, the tiny business of getting there, at least a day's flying and the shock of culture change on arrival, summed-up by the standard provision of a gas barbecue on each balcony. The balconies, incidentally, are about the size of your average student bed-sit here. Undeterred by such trivia, McAuliffe is launching off-plans at Dublin's Conrad Hotel on Friday, September 23rd.
Measure up foreigners
Size matters whatever language you're talking. But how many people buying abroad from plans bother to check that they get what they've paid for, especially when it's a sale and leaseback property? Robert Browne of solicitors McKeever Rowan, who specialises in conveyancing overseas properties for Irish buyers, dropped a reminder into our email last week, warning people to get measuring on completion of a sale and leaseback deal. "The contract and the Acte de Vente promise you a certain floor area, but how do you know this is actually what you get?" he says. So unless you have a reliable snagger over there, grab a règle and fly over before you sign the final dotted line.
Donal O Buachalla
One of the great characters of the Irish estate agency business Donal O Buachalla sadly died last week at the age of 86. He had been in practice in Dublin since 1954 and probably sold more development land for religious orders than any other agent. The late Gerry Henry was the other major player in this highly specialised and highly profitable end of the market.
Mr O Buachalla, a gaeilgeoiri from Ballyvourney, Co Cork, also took a particular interest in appeals of rateable valuations, an area now looked after by his daughter, Sheila. In one landmark case, Mr O Buachalla succeeded in having the rateable valuation for the national oil refinery in Cork Harbour struck out. A new act of parliament had to be introduced to close off the loopholes discovered by the Dublin estate agent. Mr OBuachalla was also a keen horse racing enthusiast and got great satisfaction from the success of one of his horses, Life's For Living.
