First-half operating profits at Ulster Bank surged by nearly 166%, year-on-year, to €178m, the bank said yesterday, adding that over €100m of that was earned in the second quarter of the year.

Cork’s North Main Street Shopping Centre — minus anchor unit Dunnes Stores, and all developed by Owen O’Callaghan in the 1980s with a multi-storey car-park — is to be sold off by public auction later this month, with a guide price of €750,000-850,000.

Ireland is one of top-four active markets in Europe for portfolio transactions, says Margaret Kelleher.

Heavy hitting buyers from abroad are taking us on and buying heavily discounted Irish loan books. Surveyor Margaret Kelleher, a director at Lisney Cork, looks at what’s been going on in the commercial loan market