Agent JLL is guiding a price of €8.8 million for No 14-16 Lord Edward Street, an attractive property comprising nine office suites in the heart of Dublin city centre.
The proposed sale of the property comes seven years on from its acquisition for €7.1 million by its current owner, an American investor. The price paid on that occasion represented a 16 per cent premium on the building’s then guide price of €6.1 million. At the time the investment had a limited weighted average unexpired lease term (WAULT) of 2.09 years and a total rental income of €457,917 per annum. Since then there have been numerous regears and lettings to existing and new tenants within the property, the combination of which has increased the WAULT to 5.17 years and the annual rental income to €589,498. Some 68 per cent of the overall rent roll is derived from local authority/State-backed income.
Located almost directly opposite Dublin Castle, the subject property comprises a period building converted into contemporary offices in 2007. The accommodation extends to a total floor area of 14,156sq ft across nine office suites and has a lift serving all floors. The office suites range in size from 845sq ft to 3,067sq ft. The current tenant line-up includes the Irish Film Board, Dublin City Council, Grad Ireland, and Heneghan Peng Architects.
Since being acquired by the current owner the Irish Film Board, who are a government-backed national agency for film funding, has expanded within the building and now occupies 25.4 per cent of the space across three suites. Heneghan Peng has also consolidated space in the building and vacated a suite that was surplus to its requirements. It also recently had a break option on the existing space which was not exercised. A new addition to the building is Dublin City Council, who invested significantly in a new fit-out in 2019 and committed to a 10-year term-certain lease.
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Quite apart from having a WAULT of 5.17 years to its earliest break/expire, there is limited time left on the VAT life of the property. This offers the prospective purchaser an opportunity to consider leasing to tenants that are not VAT registered, such as banks, insurance companies and charities. The guide price of €8.8 million reflects an initial yield of 6.1 per cent.
Brian Shields of JLL says: “With the subject property fully let and split into individual office suites, in a size category with limited supply, the overall vacancy risk has been reduced. This should help to provide an investor with good quality secure income.”
