four things you need to know

When agents put the hotel on the market in July last year, it stated that the Hilton contract to manage the hotel was due to conclude at the end of 2025.

Gaffney headed up Tetrarch Hospitality, the hotel wing of the property group, which at one point included The Powerscourt Hotel in Co Wicklow, Kilashee Hotel in Co Kildare and Mount Juliet in Co Kilkenny.

Kilgore is also a shareholder in Cape Wrath Hotel, the Tetrarch company that sold the 800-bedroom Citywest hotel to the state last year, crystallising a huge profits for its owners. The hotel had been used as an emergency accommodation centre. Cape Wrath Hotel retains substantial lands at Citywest.

In January 2025, Gaffney moved to buy Pure Fitout, an interiors construction firm, out of administration. Pure Fitout most recently built out the interior of the Dion restaurant in Dublin.

Merger set to create ‘biggest credit union’

The RTE Credit Union is set to merge with the Health Services Staffs Credit Union (HSSCU) in what it says will create the “country’s biggest credit union”, writes Linda Daly.

The credit union, which services staff of RTE and their family members, has more than 4,500 members. It has said in its latest annual report that it decided to seek a merger with another credit union in an effort to expand its services to include mortgages and debit cards.

At the same time, the HSSCU, whose members include both health services staff and CIE employees, decided a merger with RTE would be “a good fit” because RTE’s savings balances “would provide” it with “extra lending power”.

HSSCU has more than 75,000 members and offices in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick. It offers online banking and mortgages. The two credit unions would have more than €622 million in assets and close to €500 million in savings.

“Talks are advancing well and we hope that a merger proposal will be ready for member approval in January 2027, subject to regulatory approval,” RTE Credit Union said in its annual report, released last month.

RTE Credit Union said its savings were well above the national average. The union had €61 million in savings in 2025 and €16.4 million in loans. However, its savings have fallen over the past two years by €7.3 million due to withdrawals from deceased member accounts. It said it had experienced “sluggish” membership growth.

DWS starts asset sale in Dublin

DWS purchased the Cheevers Court and Haliday House development in Dublin for about €195m

DWS, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, is preparing to bring a large apartment development in Dun Laoghaire in south Dublin to the market, writes Linda Daly.

The Sunday Times understands the company has hired Savills to handle the sale of 368 apartments at Cheevers Court and Haliday House.

DWS purchased the scheme for about €195 million in 2020, following a prior €108 milion acquisition of 214 apartments at the adjoining Fairways scheme.

It is thought that DWS will seek a price at around the level it paid for Cheevers Court and Haliday House. The company has been disposing of some of the assets it purchased around 2019 and 2020. In late 2024, it sold Point Campus, a 1,000-student bed complex, to US investor Greystar for about €150 million.

There is set to be increased activity in the the private rented sector (PRS) this year.

A report released by Savills last week said that “around €500 million of PRS assets” were being prepared for sale this year. In 2024, residential sales accounted for 24 per cent of transactions.

Savills said “deal flow from private equity disposals” across various property types would “become a major contributor to investment activity in 2026”. “Private equity firms have prolonged holding periods for a significant portion of their positions: the €2.5 billion acquired in 2019 translated into only €1.0 billion of disposals in 2024, leaving €1.5bn to be extended (and not exited in 2025 either),” said Savills.

Deals are flowing down pipeline, says upbeat Ires

Ires Reit’s chief executive Eddie Byrne said Ires was “very well funded”

Ires Reit, Ireland’s biggest private landlord, has a “pipeline” of property deals and “would expect to be able to transact” on those in “the relative near term”, its the chief executive, said, writes Linda Daly.

Eddie Byrne said he expects up to 15,000 rental properties to come to market over the next 12 to 18 months, as investment funds start to dispose of assets in a more capital-friendly market.

Rising interest rates and rental regulations in recent years meant many institutional investors were forced to hold on to assets for longer than expected.

Byrne said Ires, which owns about 3,600 homes, in a portfolio worth just under €1.25 billion, would capitalise on the “consolidation opportunity”.

He added that he expected Ires to be an active buyer as it looks to increase its portfolio size. “We don’t need to be the consolidator of the entire market to make a big difference to our business.”

In March 2025, Ires refinanced its existing revolving credit facility of €500 million and an accordion facility of €200 million, with four lenders, Bank of Ireland, AIB, ABN Amro and Barclays.

Both facilities will expire in March 2030 but have an option for two one-year extensions. The €500 million credit facility has since been converted into a sustainability linked loan.

“We’re very well funded from a debt perspective. And for an acquisition of the size that I’m talking about, we wouldn’t need to raise any equity,” Byrne said.

The company raised over €134 million in a 2019 share placing as funding for the acquisition of 815 apartments, mostly in Dublin.

The company will also use the €35 million capital that it raised from its sale of 107 properties in the past two years.

The company will continue to sell older apartments in its current portfolio, as it tries to reach a target of 315 disposals.

The company will also forward fund developments. Ires was this month granted planning permission to build a six-storey residential building on the Main Road in Tallaght. Byrne said the company had another property, adjacent to existing properties, which it was taking through the planning process.

However, it won’t be the company to develop the site. “We won’t be a developer,” he said. “We will do a deal with a developer which says we’ll buy that asset and here’s the price we’ll pay. That will allow him to go and get bank funding that he wouldn’t otherwise be able to get if he didn’t have it pre-sold. And that will allow him to get started.”

Byrne said falling interest rates and new government regulations had helped to boost the institutional investment market.

“The suite of changes, not just the rent regulation changes, but the VAT changes and the building design standards, are having a significant impact on the market and how attractive it is for capital to come in,” said Byrne.

The company’s share price rose to €1.09 last week, up from 94c at the start of the year.