Which (if any) of these Vanity Projects will make it..?

The Irish Property Bubble The Republic of Property
#1

In the last 2 years of the run up to the peak in the property bubble, we have seen people pay record sums for land in Dublin, London and other parts of the world. I have identified 5 of the most ambitious projects. All of them are far from the finished project. One wonders how many, if any, will actually make it to the original vision and if they do in what form etc…

A] Jury’s Site Ballsbridge - Sean Dunne - EUR 260m, 54m an acre
B] The Burlington & Allianz Sites Ballsbridge - Mc Namara - EUR 400m, 80m an acre
C] Chelsea Barracks London - Candy Brothers - GBP 1bln - 78m an acre
D] Battersea Power Station & Surrounding Land, London - J Ronan - GBP 595m, 18m an acre
E] Chicago Spire - G kelleher - Its the construction costs of this project where the real ambition lies

Another one I left out was the One Hyde Park Dev’t in Knightsbridge. Another Candy and Candy project which is close to completion, but its likely there are alot of units still for sale. The penthouse app went for GBP85m, and the cheapest 1 bed was meant to be £5m, (with heated floors in the car park to keep ones tyres warm!). However, the kind of buyer this was aimed at is probably feeling a bit more frugal with Oil a fraction of where it was when this project started and the value of the avg share portfolio halving!

I am sure in the next few years work will complete on a few of these. The land is too valuable to leave it just sitting there doing nothing in many cases. Whether a profit is ever made and who the final owner is when the work completes is another question. However, in my opinion its unlikely the Jurys site say remains as a hotel for much longer?!?

#2

I remember Alan Sugar on Tubridy or Late Late a few weeks ago finding it hard to conceal his delight that the major Irish Developers are in trouble.
He mentioned the Irish were scooping land deals in the U.K. out from under him with ridiculous bids and their projects were economically unviable.

#3

It’s here
rte.ie/tv/latelate/av_200812 … 9,null,230
about 6mins in

#4

No surprise 4 of the 5 above have Irish backing. As for the other one, J Ronan etc were apparantely the second best bid for the Chelsea Barracks site, but even they balked at beating GBP 1bln. I guess thats the sort of bid you needed to make in those days to beat the Irish bid!

#5

thanks. broadcast on Dec 5th, the plank makes reference to bank recapitalisations two weeks before it was announced.

#6

Well to be fair every Tom, Dick and Harry has been calling for bank recapitilisation since October. Not perhaps always with the benefit of understanding what it meant, or even what the question was.