Two American investors have made a profit of close to €5 million in just over two years on a block of apartments next to the North Circular Road entrance to the Phoenix Park in Dublin 7. The pair bought the 63 apartments in the Park Lodge development early in 2013 for €10.4 million and, after boosting the rental income to more than €1 million, have now sold on the investment in an off-market deal to the giant Patrizia German Residential Fund for a figure in excess of €15 million.

The four-storey apartment block was developed in 2008 on the site of the former Park Hotel, once a popular venue for cattle dealers attending the nearby weekly cattle market. Later it was a regular haunt for staff in the adjoining Garda headquarters.

The mix of apartments includes six one-beds, which rent for between €1,000 and €1,100 a month; six three-beds, which attract rents of €1,800, and 52 two-beds, which fetch between €1,400 and €1,450.

All the apartments are continuously occupied, as they are within five minutes’ walk of the Luas service at Heuston station. They are also only a few hundred metres from the recently built criminal courts on Infirmary Road.

Michael Turley of Turley Property Advisors acted for the two American investors, while Marguerite Boyle of Savills represented Patrizia.