O’Devaney Gardens site in Dublin 7
This afternoon
In the Dublin Inquirer…
Laoise Neylon reports:
A council report said the value of the land at O’Devaney Gardens in 2017 was €15 million to €20 million.
A council spokesperson said last Monday that that figure remains the same today. “The indicative land value range (€15M to €20M) as outlined in the O’Devaney Gardens Feasibility Study has not changed,” they said.
Other vacant sites in the wider area have significantly higher values.
In Fairview, a similar distance from the city centre, a site with scope for 32 apartments was for sale in May for €3 million.That valuation suggests a site value of €94,000 per apartment.
Back in 2018, a site in Cabra was valued at €32 million, which suggests a site value per apartment of €76,000. That was over a year ago and land values have gone up since.
What if the site value on the O’Devaney Gardens land was midway between these, say €85,000 per apartment?
Barta is building 411 homes for private sale, so an approximate commercial value for half of the land being transferred to Bartra would in that case be in the region of €35 million.
…Architect and housing expert Mel Reynolds said he was chatting to a developer recently and he put a challenge to him.
“I said to him – ‘Do you think if we sat down together, we would we be able to figure out a way to make a 12 acre site, worth €65m, disappear?” said Reynolds.
“Dublin City Council have managed to do just that,” he says. “The unbelievable thing is that they start off with an asset but then they just give it away for free.”
A Closer Look at the Costs of the O’Devaney Gardens Deal (Laoise Neylon, Dublin Inquirer)
Previously: “There Is Something Seriously Wrong Here”
That’s not how site valuation works in it’s most basic manner. There is significant works needed on this site before construction can begin, which brings down its base value. There are also restrictions in acces to the site meaning the difficulty, and therefore cost, of construction goes up. Again, this brings down the value of the site. Not all sites can be compared on a per square metre basis (and per unit basis is an utter nonsense measure as different areas have different height restrictions which, yet again, alter the base value of the site).
Then there’s location, desirability, acces to local services, transport links.
Bottom line, site valuation comparison is complex and not as one liner as the above makes it out to be.
We need honesty from our politicians…..we also need honesty from journalists who themselves have their own ideological stand point and agendas.
You’re completely correct. So lets look at O’Devaney Gardens. It’s hardly a green field site the far out West Dublin. It has internal roadways, 3 entry points, water works have already been in place. Its minutes walk to Hueston Station, the redline luas, Phoenix Park, buses, schools, Stoneybatter, the city centre and 15 minutes drive to the M50. It should be the most premium property in the city!
The water network has to be dug up and replaced as it’s not to modern standard. Same for the internal road layout which doesn’t match the new layout anyway. Green field sites are more valuable than brown field for this reason.
The three points of entry will not all be open to construction traffic. It’s public transport links are brilliant but services (GPs, schools, community centres, etc) are all overcrowded/ run down in the north Inner city due in large part to a lack of Government funding.
Even with the 7 – 10 million cost to knock it back to a kinda green field state
the site given its existing use & unit density, its location, and access to public transport, and mains services
still makes it worth 50 million
Ok all fair but there can’t be parcels of land that size popping up literally in the city centre in many cities across Europe.
Took me a bit to find this: https://www.broadsheet.ie/2019/09/05/stairway-to-kevin/
140m for 3.57 acres in Dublin 8