Affluent Irish families are investing in real estate on Dublin’s prestigious Grafton Street, often paying in cash as large investment entities are trimming the retail properties from their portfolios. Figures from this wealthy group include JP McManus from Limerick, founder of Panda waste collection enterprise Eamon Waters, the Brennan family famed for their bread brand, the McConn family of Roscommon who hold the Budget and Avis franchise in Ireland, and ex-chief of Davy financial services group Bryan McKiernan. They now lay claim to structures on this renowned street.
On the other hand, pension and various other investment bodies have been scaling down their footprints on the street. Regardless, the undisputed leader in Grafton Street property ownership remains Irish Life.
Property on this desirable retail street is also owned by notable entities like the Keaveney family, who helm the Peter Mark hair salon chain, the O’Leary family – owners of the Burger King franchise in the Republic, Dublin property investor Michael Enoch (80), descendants of the Odlum flour-milling dynasty, and the family behind the revered Jameson whiskey label.
Certain buildings are retained by families that have conducted business on Grafton street for several generations. Examples include the Barnardo family, operators of Barnardo furriers, the Andrews family that owns Weir’s watch and jewellery enterprise and the proprietors of JJ Fox, a tobacco retailer based at 119, at the corner with College Green.
As large investment entities cut back on their retail property holdings, this paves the way for private investors to enter the market, as observed by Eoin Feeney, the retail head at Colliers real estate and investment management.
Feeney illustrated that fears, primarily concerning retail’s negative image from the internet and Covid, and the fallacy that online shopping would completely overtake physical stores may have unnerved some funds and general investors. However, the notion that shoppers would abandon brick-and-mortar stores in the aftermath of the pandemic proved to be unfounded.
With big funds traditionally having significant control over markets such as Grafton Street, they would usually bid against each other for any available property. However, Feeney points out that they are now largely absent, leaving private investors as the main participants in the current market.
Details from Tailte Éireann, previously the Land Registry, and business documents suggest that many properties are being purchased outright, with no recourse to loans or mortgages registered against them. According to data from Colliers, the share of the street’s buildings owned by private investors increased from 23% in 2017 to 36% last year. The recent data revealing private investor ownership reflects this ongoing trend.
Despite international private investors not being predominant in the recent transactions, notable exceptions include a significant property at the end of the College Green street purchased by a Chinese retail chain, and another property near it bought by a Hong Kong-based investment firm.
Business lease records highlight six-figure annual rents being charged for the ground level of smaller structures. However, many top floors of Grafton Street structures are either vacant or rented at considerably lower rates. For instance, a property at the intersection of Grafton Street and Suffolk Street, owned by JP McManus and accommodating Boylesports at street level, has two leases listed for April 2023. The first lease carries an annual rent of €220,000, whereas the second, for a surgery on the upper floors, only requires an annual rent of €34,250.