Cork's €12m Camden Court lot yields significant return
Chip off the block. Looking towards the Camden Court apartment block (far right of picture) at Carroll's Quay, Cork.
AN apartment block investment, comprising 49 units being sold in one lot along with a retail unit, has a €12 million price, nearly twice was it last sold for three years ago, before refurbishment and with a rent roll increase in train.
At this price level, the block with soaring copper-clad roofs and limestone sections and rendered facades was built to avail of city renewal tax incentives, is expected to be bought by a fund, which will get a 6.45% return.
Offered this week is the distinctively-detailed strategic multi-family investment at Camden Court, on Cork city’s Carroll’s Quay, just 100 metres from the city’s Opera House, at the start of the Limerick/Watercourse Road.
It’s the first significant residential holding of this scale to come to the open market since the same units were offered - in a slightly larger lot - by the same selling agent Pat Falvey of Coldwell Banker.
Acting at that time for NAMA, Mr Falvey had guided 55 units at €6.85m at that time, and they sold in two lots, to two investors, with this section of 49 apartments then making a reported €5.85 million.
The identity of neither buyer was confirmed at that time and now the larger selection which was picked up by a private investor has been put back up for sale, at a considerably higher price level, following refurbishment of 27 or the 49 apartments, along with upgrades of the common areas.
Rents back then of the 49 apartments plus a shop unit which had been built in the mid-2000s, with 96% occupancy, totalled a combined €556,000, and the properties were described as being in overall good overall condition, but needing some remedial internal works. At that time, Mr Falvey noted that there was “potential to substantially increase rental income through refurbishment and strategic asset management.”
On its May 2021 resurfacing on the investment market, the Coldwell Banker agent said the gross rent from the 36 two-beds (averaging 70 sq m) and 13 one-beds averaging 52 sq m was scheduled to reach €773,760pa “following the implementation of current rent revisions under the RPZ legislation and represents an attractive yield of 6.45%.”
He said it was “an opportunity to acquire one of the few remaining complete multifamily investment properties in Cork City centre.”
Camden Court was developed as one half of two self-contained blocks, originally constructed by the late businessman Neil O’Sullivan on a site which had included Whitaker’s hatcheries, the CAT Club theatrical night venue and Pa Johnson’s bar; the latter two users were then accommodated in the new development, designed by Cork architect James Leahy.
This section, the later to be built, was completed in mid 2007, while the first phase of the complex (nearer the River Lee/Christy Ring Bridge) is currently in dispersed ownership.
This subject phase, Block 2, was retained as a complete holding which was later offered for sale via NAMA-appointed receiver Brendan O’Donoghue of Russell Brennan Keane; the 55 units plus ground floor unit were sold in early 2018 to two investors.
Coldwell Banker’s Pat Falvey says that with currently high levels of price hikes in building materials, the €12m guide for the 49 offered in the block is still well below construction/replacement costs.
Average values at the AMV are c €245,000 per unit.
“Those prohibitive construction costs are unlikely to change anytime soon, as the cost of most construction materials such as steel and timber sky-rocket, driving the viability of future high-density city centre residential developments into a long-term prospect category for many institutional investors,” he observes.
“Camden Court is sure to raise interest amongst those looking to acquire a strategically-located, complete residential holding in Cork city centre," he states.
"Given the current viability threshold of high-density apartment schemes in the city centre, it offers prospective investors a turnkey opportunity, with an immediate rent-roll and cash flow, at a value which still remains well below construction and reinstatement cost."
Details: Coldwell Banker Carlton Estates 021-4278500
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