Sky-high rents in capital’s Grand Canal digital hub puts it out of reach of most native renters
Wexford Rentals & Property Management has read today that an enclave of exclusive properties dotted within a 10-minute walk of web giant Google and other blue-chip employers in the Dublin docklands has become the country’s most expensive place to live.
Rents in the area around Grand Canal Dock, south of the Liffey, soared by a massive 15pc last year. It means a two-bedroom apartment at the prestige Waterfront development overlooking the Grand Canal is now costing a whopping €2,100 a month to rent.
Wexford Rentals & Property Management understands that another rental property, a two-bedroom south-facing apartment at Hanover Dock, that boasts a wrap-around terrace is now available for rent at €2,350 a month. One of the most expensive properties in the area is a three-bedroom duplex penthouse also at Hanover Dock with water views, a roof garden and two car-parking spaces. The penthouse measuring some 136 sq. metres can be rented for €4,500 a month – a rent only marginally higher than it achieved last year when it was taken on a short-term lease by a US pharmaceutical company on behalf of a senior executive.
The soaring cost of rents caused by the “Google effect” is made clearer by comparison with buying rather than renting in the current market. A first-time buyer who buys a €350,000 house or apartment over 25 years and who can come up with the Central Bank’s tough new deposit rules (€48,000 on a €350,000 property) can expect to pay just over €1,600 a month on a variable rate mortgage based on borrowings of €302,000. That’s about €500 a month less than renting a two-bed apartment in the golden quarter around the docklands.
Jerome Reilly
