It is seldom these times that I find myself on the same page as Pearse Doherty, although I take Sinn Féin’s adoption of mine and others’ statistics on, and questioning of, the asylum accommodation caper as a backhanded compliment.
He is correct, I think, about the nefarious influence of a band of intrepid entrepreneurs known as Ires Reit. He claims that the new rental regulations will benefit the large landlords, which would appear to be their own expectation too.
For, in their preliminary results published on February 19, Ires Reit looks forward to a potential 25% increase in its rental income from the 3,627 residential units which it owns, the total value of which is almost €1.25 billion. That means that each unit they own is on average valued at €344,637.
But of course even if you could get a mortgage for such a prized commodity or have the cash in a Dunnes Stores bag under your bed, you would mostly not be able to buy one of them – because the lads at Ires Reit and in the other property funds have bought them before they were even a glimmer in the eye of a sparks in Capetown or Lagos or from wherever our construction saviours are going to come.
Ires Reit welcomes the Government’s “proactive approach to reviving housing construction” especially where that is going to lead to more multi-storey apartment blocks which the boys already own before a block has been laid and which can be rented out for pretty hefty sums.
The new rental regulations will allow Ires Reit and other landlords to reset rents to market value in-between tenants.
Of course, the pressure on even finding somewhere to live, never mind being able to afford it, is largely the consequence of inward migration. That is also the reason why there is a shortage of construction workers even as qualified Irish workers continue to emigrate. And that is gaslit into persuading people that what we need is to import more brickies and carpenters.
WHO ARE IRES REIT?
Who are these lads? The CEO of Ires Reit is a chap called Eddie Byrne but do not let that homely name distract you. (Byrne by the way was once a manager with Anglo Irish Bank who you may remember from such classics as the collapse of the Irish property sector which required that our financial and property “elite” be bailed out on our tab.)
On his Linkedin page, Eddie Byrne welcomes the new Residential Tenancies Act of which Doherty and others are dubious, on the grounds that it should lead to “a significant increase in the flow of capital into Ireland to help solve the housing crisis”.
Well, that is jolly decent of them given that the radical change in demographics and all the negativities that flow from that are almost exclusively the consequence of the Irish State being administered at the whim of overseas capital.
Ires Reit is a classic example of how this has come to set the agenda in the residential accommodation sector. There are somewhere in the region of 100 investment funds with a stake in Ires Reit. It was established in 2014 by the Canadian giant Capreit but it has sold off its remaining stake. Carpeit owns almost 70,000 rental apartments worldwide worth around $17 billion.
The main shareholder in Ires Reit now is TR Property Investment Trust which is a UK- based company that has a 10% stake. However, the Trust is a subsidiary of Ameriprise which is based in Minneapolis. Another large US investment fund, Fidelity, has a shareholding in Ires Reit of around 8%.
There are a host of smaller funds which wet their beak and include Swisscanto Fondsleitung, APG Asset Management which is a Dutch based company, and Grace and White which plays out of New York City. Some of the funds have holdings which appear very small but even 0.5% of Ires Reit means that whoever has the coupon owns more than €6 million in Irish property.
The Chairperson of Ires Reit is a chap called Hugh Scott-Barrett. When he was appointed in January 2024, having spent many years at the top of other property funds, he declared that “Ires is an outstanding business and plays a key role in the Irish property market.” Indeed it does.
Among the other company leaders are Eddie Byrne who was previously a partner in Quintain Developments now Evara and owned by an Luxembourg investment fund; Brian Fagan formerly of Island Capital owned by an Isle of Man registered fund; Alan Kavanagh who is on the board of the British Institute of Directors; and Jeremy O’Sullivan also once with Quintain.
It would remind you of what James Connolly said about changing the flag making little or no difference if England continues to rule through its capitalists..
The business model operated by Ires Reit is basically to buy apartment blocks off the plans in the classic ‘built to rent’ mode. Among their projects are Beacon Quarter and Rockbrook. That control and the huge demand in Dublin in particular guarantees them the more than 99% occupancy rate which it presents in its preliminary report.
Ires Reit is hugely influential in the property sector and their pleasure at what the new legislation offers in terms of boosting the bank accounts of overseas investors is hardly unconnected to their regular lobbying of politicians on to help them come to “an understanding of IRES and its role in the housing sector, with a need for appropriate regulatory framework.”
Appropriate for whom, perhaps, is the question that ought to be posed.