I understand that the second largest apartments is being sold to the owners of Isaacs Restaurant for 1.8 million (this information was in the Property Examiner a few weeks ago) - a couple with grown up children. I wonder if they got a discount for confirming in public that they are moving in there?!
I took a tour of the apartments myself a few weeks ago, (purely out of curiosity), and was hugely impressed with the architecture and fit out - I think there are a lot of fresh and clever ideas. But the prices are high. The smallest one bed is €375,000. And the management fees range from €2000 to €4000 based on square footage. I can imagine that's going to rise over the years. I expect the large apartments near the top of the tower will sell but I reckon they will struggle to sell the smaller ones. I asked the agent what sort of rent they would achieve and was told that it was expected to be around €1900 for a two bed. Considering you can get a nice two bed around the city centre for about €1100 to €1200 I can't see how these would be attractive to an investor? It is a super development and these apartments would have been snapped up a few years ago - it will be interesting to see how it goes for O'Flynns.
I wonder will they employ someone to go around turning on lights at night as time goes on as if someone was living there? It's painfully clear at the moment that the building is empty!