Potential Dublin tenants are being offered up to six-weeks rent free at a luxury docklands apartment development, as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is starting to kick in on Dublin’s rental market.
Quayside Quarter at Dublin Landings is a development of 268 apartments on Dublin's North Wall Quay, which was acquired by US property investment company Greystar back in 2019 for €176 million.
It currently has a number of apartments available for rent, with prices ranging from €2,430 for a one-bed apartment to about €3,800 a month for a two-bed, and €5,030 for a three-bed duplex. It’s now offering up to six weeks free rent, for tenants leasing the development’s two-bed apartments. Applying the six-week discount would bring the monthly rent down to about €3,325 a month for the two-bed unit over a year.
The upscale apartments at North Wall Quay come with a dedicated concierge service, landscaped courtyards, a bespoke gym and residents’ lounge. It’s understood that the latest incentive is to compensate tenants for the ongoing construction work at the site.
Landlords
But Greystar is not the only landlord to offer an incentive to putative tenants, as the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic starts to have an impact on Dublin’s rental market, particularly at the top end.
A two-bed apartment in Gallery Quay, on Dublin’s south docklands for example, is currently being advertised for €2,650 a month, with one-month free, while a two-bed penthouse at Beacon South Quarter in Sandyford, south Dublin is available to rent for €2,300 a month. It is also offering a month’s free rent however, which brings the monthly cost for the year down to €2,108.
Similarly, a penthouse apartment at Richmond Hall in Fairview is using the incentive of one free month of rent to bring the monthly cost on the one-bed down from €1,700 to €1,558 for the first year.
While rental growth has moderated in Dublin, the docklands area, home to thousands of high-end apartments such as those at Dublin Landings, has seen a sharp decline, with rents falling by an average 13 per cent since last March according to Dublin agent Owen Reilly.
“Covid has had a much bigger impact on docklands than any other end of the Dublin market,” he says, adding, “it’s a tenant’s market.”
And the short-term is likely to remain challenged. “We anticipated a bounce back was going to happen in January, but this new lockdown has stopped it in its tracks,” he says.
