The address: Apartment 2, The Dales, 35 Greendale Avenue, Kilbarrack, Dublin 5.

The agent: Gunne Residential.

The property: one-bedroom ground floor apartment for €275,000. This represents a cost of €7,432 per sq m (€690 per sq ft).

The look: more like a big house than an apartment block.

The landscape: located off Greendale Avenue off the Howth Road close to the Dart.

The features: this 37sq m (400sq ft) apartment has a hall with a linen press/store, a lounge, kitchen with fitted presses and a bedroom with a built-in wardrobe. The bathroom has a bath with a telephone shower attached. The complex has communal car-parking, gardens and a storage shed.

How much for an investor to buy? If you add the stamp duty at 5 per cent and 0.5 per cent legal fees, plus Vat, the acquisition cost would be €290,414. The annual repayments on a 90 per cent mortgage over 20 years at a PTSB tracker rate of 3.6 per cent would be €17,378. The rental income is calculated at around €9,600 per annum, leaving a shortfall of €7,778. On an interest-only mortgage the annual repayments would be €8,910 leaving a shortfall of €690. The yield would be 3.5 per cent. For an investor to break even on an annuity mortgage, they could go for a 50 per cent mortgage over 20 years at 3.6 per cent. On an interest-only mortgage the surplus would be €4,678 per annum.

Potential: located near the Dart in an area that is becoming increasingly popular.

Verdict: an investor would make substantial losses on this unless they were able to put capital of 50 per cent or more into the property.

This might be more suited to a first-time buyer looking to live within easy reach of the city centre but it is quite small at 35sq m (400sq ft).

Calculations by Simply Mortgages