Cairn Homes inks €21.5m Dublin land deal

Publicly quoted Irish housebuilder Cairn Homes has positioned itself as a potentially key player in the proposed development of the Cherrywood area of south-east Dublin, via the €21.5m purchase of two landbanks in the vicinity.

Cairn has bought the sites from the Irish arm of US real estate group Hines and has the option to buy a third lot of land for an additional €9.2m. The entire €30.7m investment would, planning permitting, lead to Cairn building more than 300 new homes in the area. The sites are within the Cherrywood strategic development zone (SDZ), acquried by Hines in late 2014.

The overall plan for the SDZ includes a new retail-led, mixed-use town centre with up to 3,800 new houses and apartments. Planning was lodged for key infrastructure projects last year and application for the town centre aspect is expected to be lodged by the middle of this year.

“We look forward to bringing our housebuilding skills to one of Dublin’s most important new developments,” Cairn’s chief executive Michael Stanley said yesterday.

“The supply of land, which we have previously highlighted as a bottleneck in new home construction in Ireland, seems to be loosening somewhat,” according to Colin Sheridan of Davy Stockbrokers.

“Following the acquisition of Project Clear, Cairn Homes has now added some very attractive sites in Cherrywood to its portfolio, after Hanover Quay which was announced earlier this year. The deals, if completed will take Cairn’s land acquisitions to over €550m, leaving it well-positioned for future growth plans.”