First Active branch properties put on the market by Ulster Bank

By Tommy Barker Property Editor

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

FIRST ACTIVE, now part of Ulster Bank, is to dispose of 49 branch outlets nationwide. The bank bills it as one of the largest property portfolios ever to be placed on the Irish market, although the value of the freehold properties is only put at about €13.5 million.

The disposal comes after the January merger of Ulster Bank and First Active, which also saw up to 750 redundancies announced at the time, north and south of the border.

Ulster Bank has appointed DTZ Sherry FitzGerald to offload the branches, either singly, in groups, or as an entire portfolio. They are made up of 24 freehold units, including two investment properties, as well as 22 leasehold branches, and three other part-freehold/part leaseholds.

The bulk of the disposals are in the Leinster region, but the balance includes branches in Grand Parade, Cork city, Barronstrand Street in Waterford, Mallow and Limerick city.

Branch values vary from €200,000 to over €2m, and the 24 freeholds could be worth about €13.5m — a long way from the hundreds of millions realised by the main banks in branch sales at the height of the investment property rush.

A number are located in high-profile settings, such as Dundrum, Dún Laoghaire, Upper O’Connell Street and Upper Baggot Street in Dublin, in Cork, Limerick and Waterford cities, as well as in Ennis, Bandon, Mallow, Tralee, Navan, Wexford, and Carlow.

Current passing rents for the leasehold properties vary from €13,000 pa to €120,000 pa for some of the higher profile locations. In total the units have a combined passing rent of about €1.75m.

DTZ’s Karl Stewart says the portfolio "offers the opportunity for investors, retailers and owner-occupiers to acquire an excellent nationwide spread of freehold and leasehold units on strong retail pitches in excellent provincial and city locations".

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, November 04, 2009