Current market signals interest in Cork's multifamily unit sector

THE imminent sale of the Elysian tower development to an as-yet unconfirmed international fund, with 217 fully let apartments and commercial units at what’s understood to be a 5% return, may see a snowball effect of REITs and funds interested in Cork city’s multi-family unit sector.

The expectation heightened this week as a 125-unit apartment scheme at City Square, in Cork’s Blackpool, comes to market with a €28m price tag quoted by agents Savills, at a 5.5% net initial yield. City Square is fully let on the residential side, and has a current income of c €2m, with scope to boost that through rent reviews, and the letting of vacant commercial/retail space.

City Square, developed on a three-acre brownfield site on Watercourse Road by Frinailla and completed in 2007 at a reported cost of €50m (it initially had c 145 apartments but a number have since sold privately), is 500 metres from St Patrick’s Bridge and the city centre, and rents recently achieved range from €1,200 per month to €1,700 for three-beds.