A car parking space in Dublin’s south inner city is now valued at €60,700, judging by the recent sale of 28 spaces just off St Stephen’s Green.
Estate agents Hooke & McDonald have just sold the spaces, at Stephen’s Hall in the Earlsfort Centre, to Arthur Cox for €1.7 million. The legal firm had been renting them since 1997 at an overall figure of €110,600 per annum – the equivalent of €3,950 per space.
Cox’s lease on the car park had another 13 years to run. Although new parking agreements in the city centre since the property crash have tended to keep rates at no higher than €3,000 per annum, the 28 spaces in this instance were due to attract further rental increases because they were subject to upwards-only reviews every five years.
Private interest
According to Enda Moore of Hooke & MacDonald, who handled the sale for the Prem Group hotel management company, the marketing campaign attracted interest mainly from private investors planning to run their own pension funds.
The “frenzy” resulted in the bidding exceeding the guide price by €200,000.
Nicholas Corson of Finnegan Menton, which acted for Arthur Cox, said that in acquiring the freehold of the parking lot the company would save more than €1.4 million on rent payments over the next 13 years. .
The sale of the block of car spaces is thought to have been the first of its kind in Dublin for many years. During the boom years, investors regularly acquired newly developed car parking facilities and in the process were able to avail of generous tax breaks. These are no longer available.
New headquarters
Arthur Cox’s acquisition of the 28 spaces comes as it awaits the building of its new headquarters at the junction of Earlsfort Terrace and Hatch Street.
The seven-storey building, with a floor area extending to 11,148sq m (120,000sq ft) is not due to be completed by developers Clancourt until the summer of 2017. It plans to provide 49 car parking spaces on one of two basement levels. The second one will accommodate plant and storage facilities.
The newly acquired 28 spaces are accessed opposite the new headquarters site.
Arthur Cox’s recent spending spree has also included the purchase of Dolmen House, a modern five-storey office building on Earlsfort Terrace, for close to €9 million. The firm had been renting the 1,161sq m (12,500sq ft) block for a number of years along with 15 basement car-parking spaces at €4,500 each.
