Investors from China are pumping significant sums into the Dublin property market in recent years, land and company registry files show.
Many of the properties are in Dublin 1, where Chinese restaurants and other Chinese businesses have opened in areas such as Parnell Street and Capel Street.
The investments, in some instances, are made for high net-worth Chinese investors looking for Irish residency, one online profile shows.
In other cases, Chinese people based in Ireland are investing family money generated from property sales in Hong Kong, said one estate agent who recently sold a Dublin 1 building to a Chinese investor.
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“They said they were looking for 10 more,” he said.
Chinese people wanting to start businesses in the European Union have become more aware of Ireland in recent years, Dublin-based property executive Ziyue Sun said.
“Chinese people like to invest in property,” she said. “It is part of our culture. In Ireland, there are good opportunities to buy property at a reasonable price, renovate it, and rent it out to generate a good income within a reasonable period.
“Agencies in Ireland are working with agencies in China to introduce clients to Ireland. There is Irish citizenship and the English language and educational benefits. Brexit may also be a factor.”
Globally, there has been a trend of wealthy Chinese people seeking residency rights in the West in response to increased repression in Xi Jinping’s China, including the 2019 tightening of freedoms in Hong Kong.
[ Dublin homes targeted by rich Chinese buyersOpens in new window ]
Wealthy Chinese were by far the largest users of the State’s Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP) that ran from 2012 until February 2023 when it was suddenly closed to new applicants.
Investments in social housing qualified under the scheme and money invested in most qualifying investments can be retrieved after three years and then invested in any type of Irish property.
One of the more active Chinese investors in Dublin property is a Chinese woman with US nationality called Duanying, Duan Ying or Gina Chen (44), with an address in Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1.
Chen is a director of more than 20 property companies, most of which she owns outright, filings at the Companies Registration Office (CRO) show.
The companies have been buying apartments and buildings, mostly in the north Dublin city area, taking out loans using lenders that target the smaller end of the property investment market, files at the CRO and Tailte Éireann (Land Registry) show.
Businessman James Moore (57), of Clontarf, Dublin, is a shareholder in some of the companies with Chen. He is the founder of Sremium, a remote payment business, as well as Telclic, which is involved in public bike schemes. He is also the chief executive of Parkbytext, involved in cashless parking meter systems.
The LinkedIn profile of Dublin-resident Chinese national Jingshu (Nicole) Zhang (36), a minority shareholder in some of the companies, shows Chen’s business activities include helping high net-worth individuals from China move to Ireland.
Zhang’s work with Chen companies JM & GC Investments Ltd and JMGC Real Estate Ltd (now dissolved) involved “leading the team to help over 100 high-net-worth Chinese families immigrating to Ireland”, the profile stated.
As well as being “heavily involved in co-ordinating with over 100 investors in social housing projects in Ireland, total worth of over €100 million”, Zhang was also involved in managing and letting investment properties on behalf of the companies, the profile said.
JM & GC Investments is one of Dublin’s most ambitious property investment groups, the profile stated, with Zhang saying: “All of our properties are within 2km of Dublin north city centre, with hundreds of residents staying with us.”
JMGC Real Estate said it is looking for residential, pub and retail opportunities.
“Funding is in place,” the profile said.
A website associated with JMGC Real Estate, www.jmgc.ie, advertises bedrooms for rent in buildings in Mountjoy Square and Gardiner Place, Dublin 1, and Windsor Avenue, Fairview, and Ossory Road, North Strand, Dublin 3, all owned by Chen companies.
The bedrooms with shared bathrooms are being advertised for between €525 and €750 a month. None of the properties is on the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) register, despite landlords being obliged to register their properties. Requests for comment submitted via the mobile phone numbers on the website met no response.
Likewise, requests for comment from Chen, Moore and Zhang met no response.
Properties range from Capel Street to Drumcondra and Artane
A Chen company called WZDJ Property Investment Ltd owns 67 Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1, and 22 Gardiner Place, Dublin 1, both advertised as having rooms for rent.
WZDJ took out loans in 2020 and last year with RELM Loan Opportunities, a property finance company based on Merrion Square, Dublin 2, CRO filings show. The mortgage security included lease arrangements with named tenants in the properties.
WZDJ is owned equally by Chen and Wan Yong Huang (48), of Westminster, Colorado, in the US, CRO records show. The CRO filings include a 2023 loan agreement with two other Chen companies, Gina’s A Properties Ltd, and GCWan’s A Properties Ltd.
The latter is the owner of 383 North Circular Road, Dublin 7, since July 2023. It registered a loan from RELM Opportunities against the property last May. The property was described as derelict when on the market in 2023.
In May 2024 GCWan’s A Properties registered loans against 1-6 Windsor Mews, Fairview Avenue, Dublin 3; 42 Malahide Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3; and 7 Windsor Lane, Fairview, Dublin 3. Some were bought in 2023, Land Registry filings show.
Gina’s A Properties acquired 14 Capel Street, Dublin 1, in March 2022, and registered a mortgage the following month in respect of Novellus Ltd, a financing company based in London. Gina’s A Properties is also the owner of 75 Furry Park Road, Killester, Dublin 5.
Chen is the majority shareholder in GC Hill 16 Investments Ltd, with Steven Wu and Zhang, both with addresses at Gardiner Place, each owning 5 per cent. The company registered mortgages with Novellus in December 2021 against numbers 28, 29 and 30 Middle Gardiner Street, Dublin 1, which comprises the Hill 16 pub and six apartments overhead.
GC Moore 168 Investments Ltd, the equal shareholders of which are Chen and Moore, owned property worth €7.9 million and owed approximately half that to credit institutions and the same again to “other creditors,” according to its 2023 accounts. Mortgages refer to 2,3 and 4 Fairview Avenue, Dublin 3; numbers 25, 26 and 46 Mountjoy Square; and 10 Loftus Court, Dublin 1. Number 46 Mountjoy Square also has rooms advertised on the JMGC.ie website
GSW Real Estate Ltd, 25 Mountjoy Square, is the owner of 8 Fairview, Dublin 3, since last December. The Fairview property is the registered office of JM & GC Investments Ltd.
Mortgages filed last year by GSW show loans secured against the Fairview property as well as 9 Ardbeg Crescent, Artane, Dublin 5, and 4 Rosemount, Malahide Road, Dublin 5. The property is secured with funding service provider Property Bridges, Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2.
Another of Chen’s companies, Gina’s Properties Ltd, has a 2021 mortgage registered against an apartment at Wicklow Court, South Great George’s Street, Dublin 2, and an apartment at Market Square, Green Street, Dublin 7. The loans are from Capitalflow Group, Northwood Business Park, Santry, Dublin 9.
Chen’s company, GCWan’s B Properties Ltd, acquired 39 Mountjoy Square in April 2022, according to a mortgage with Mount Street Hibernia Servicing Limited, of Sandymount, Dublin 4. The property has a planning notice outside it for the proposed restoration of the building.
GCWan’s B Properties is one of several companies owned by Chen by way GC Chinatown Ltd, incorporated in 2021, with its registered offices at 26 Mountjoy Square.
A mortgage document with Mount Street Hibernia Servicing shows GC Chinatown lent money to JMoore A Property Ltd, GCWan’s B Properties Ltd, GCNJ Capel Investments Ltd, GCNJ Ivy Investments Ltd, Gina’s 168 Investments Ltd, and Cabernet Properties Ltd, all with property management agreements with JM & GC Investments Ltd.
Cabernet Properties had property worth €4.1 million at the end of 2023, and owed credit institutions €4.7 million, CRO filings show. Properties cited in mortgages are 24 Nelson Street, Phibsborough, Dublin 7; 24 and 26 Howth Road, Dublin 5; 2 Summer Street North, North Circular Road, Dublin 1; and an apartment at The Distillery Building, Distillery Road, Dublin 3.
Another Chen company owned by way of GC Chinatown, GCNJ Capel Investments Ltd, has six apartments at 97-102 Capel Street, a site and fish processing shop at Belmont Place, off Gardiner Street, and three apartments in the Ivy Exchange building, Parnell Street, Dublin 1, mortgage documents show.
Another GC Chinatown company, GCNJ Ivy Investments Ltd, owns an apartment in the Ivy Exchange building on Parnell Street, Dublin 1, mortgage documents show.
A Chen company called SASB Properties Investment Group Ltd, incorporated in 2023, registered a mortgage this year with Property Bridges, Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2, in respect of a €1.45 million, five-bedroom, six-bathroom detached house in Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
GC Chinatown subsidiary JMoore A Property Ltd registered mortgages with Mount Street Hibernia Servicing in 2023, citing 383A North Circular Road, Dublin 7; 25 Hollybank Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9; and 14 Ossory Road, North Strand, Dublin 3, as well as property management agreements with JM & GC Investments Ltd. The Ossory Road property is advertised on the JMGC.ie website.
The North Circular Road property was advertised as an 11-bedroom investment property when on the market in 2020. A Facebook posting from 2023 by JMGC Real Estate offered a one-bed studio in it for €1,500 per month.
Gina’s 168 Investments Ltd has mortgages registered in respect of 77 Marlborough Street, Dublin 1, a property that featured in the recent series of articles in The Irish Times on dereliction in Dublin city centre. Planning approval to turn number 77 into a single six-bedroom town house was granted last December.
Tomorrow: Colm Keena looks at the Hong Kong-based property group making significant investments in Dublin property
