ROYAL Liver Assurance Company has provided a lively start to the new investment season by purchasing three properties at a total cost of around £6.5 million.

The largest acquisition, Grattan House, a 40,000-square-foot modern office block at 67/72 Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2, was sold by Irish Life for around £3.5 million.

Royal Liver has also bought the Irish Ferries/Guardian Royal Exchange building at Merrion Row. In the retail sector, it has bought the Golden Disc store, at 8 North Earl Street, in a sale and lease-back arrangement.

Druker Fanning and Partners, which acted for Royal Liver, said the three prime investments had gilt-edged covenants with the added security of no break clauses in any of the leases.

Grattan House is currently producing £286,000 and will show a return of slightly more than 8 per cent for the new owners. The complex includes two independent five-storey buildings with 101 car-parking spaces.

Block One is predominantly let to the Revenue Commissioners and Bord Bainne, while the second block is used as a headquarters for Bord Bainne under a 99-year lease from 1970. Block One has a rent roll of £254,000 reflecting a rent of £11 per square foot and £825 per car space. All rent reviews are upwards only at five-year intervals with the next reviews spread between 1997 and 1998.

The building used as a HQ by Bord Bainne has 25,430 square feet and 51 of the 101 car-parking spaces. Total rental income in this block is, surprisingly, £31,500.

Rent reviews are at 14-year intervals and are based on slightly over 14 per cent of the open market rental value of the building. The next review takes place in 1998. Palmer McCormack handled the sale for Irish Life.

Irish Ferries and Guardian Royal Exchange are paying a combined rent of £190,000 for the 18,620-square-foot building at Merrion Row. Both tenants face rent reviews within two years.

The investment, which will show a return of 7.5 per cent, was sold by the Irish Pension Fund Property Unit Trust (IPFPUT). Its agents, Jones Lang Wootton said the block was put on the market as part of a portfolio balancing exercise.

Royal Liver is believed to have paid in the region of £630,000 for its third investment, the Golden Disc store, which will be let to the trader at a rent of £50,000 per annum. Harrington Bannon advised Golden Disc.

Royal Liver already owns another store a short distant away at 26 North Earl Street which is let to Anne's Hot Bread Shop.