Ideal for city investors

A chance to buy 24 Cork apartments, 11 in the city centre in a quality, contemporary scheme and 13 in Passage West, all for €3.5 million, has come to market with DTZ Sherry FitzGerald, who’ll also sell in two specific lots.

Billing them as multi-family investment opportunities, surveyor Eoin Ryan of DTZ say there’s an income of €146,100 pa from the 11 upmarket units at Langford Hall, at the corner of Langford Row and Douglas Street, near St John’s College.

Guide price as one lot is €2.25 million for Langford Hall, showing a net yield of 6.2% on the purchase, and scope to increase income, or sell off units individually in time.

And, separately or along with Langford Hall, DTZ’s Mr Ryan (jointly with Sherry FitzGerald Residential) is selling the entire of Manfield House, a 13-apartment building, finished in the mid to late 2000s, also by private investors/consortium.

The Langford Hall development, on a curved corner site vacated by a filling station in the mid-2000s, was designed by Reddy O’Riordan Staehli Architects, and was part of a several upgrades in the area, which included the then-VEC also upgrading older properties on Douglas Street.

A stand-alone building, Langford Hall is guiding at €2.25 million, and that’s for 11 well-finished units over three/four upper levels with penthouse.

There’s a medical unit at ground level, in separate ownership. The sale includes just one parking space, though the scheme is a five minute walk from City Hall and rents readily.

The building, in crisp white render and zinc, has nine two-beds and two one-bed apartments, all with balconies.

When it launched in September 2007 one-beds of less than 600 sq ft were guided at €315,000, and two-beds of 823 sq ft/1,044 sq ft at €385,000-plus. Parking spots were to be an extra €50,000 each. None sold, they’ve been rented since, and the selling agents say they are finished to a high quality.

Nearby Douglas Street has a wide variety of bars, shops and food outlets, from the Iberian Way’s tapas to pizzas, and also reopened nearby on Southern Road is Paddy the Farmer’s bar, and a new arrival, the Langford Row Coffee and Music store.

“It’s one of the highest quality schemes of this nature in the city, and continues to attract full occupancy and strong rents,” says Eoin Ryan.

Meanwhile, the Mansfield House scheme of 13 apartments built over a decked car park near the Ardmore and Pembroke estate in Passage West has harbour views, good parking, and on a guide of €1.25 million and earning a rent of €126,600 has a net return of 9.7%.

Mansfield House was built in 2007/08 and units ranging from 825 to 1,000 sq ft were marketed in 2008 at prices from €210,000 to €260,00, but no sales followed.

“Both locations have proven to be consistently popular with the rental market with excellent occupancy rates,” say DTZ, while Sheila O’Flynn, MD Sherry FitzGerald anticipates “strong interest from a wide range of purchaser types, due to the strength of the demand for housing generally, coupled with a lack of supply, the potential break-up value of the assets over time and also the quality of the investments on offer.”

DETAILS: DTZ 021-4275454, Sherry FitzGerald 021-4273041