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Buy your own island out West for €1.25m: 5 things to know in property this week

Plus Reddit is set to open a Dublin office, its first location outside the US.

EACH AND EVERY week, we put together a round-up of the week’s biggest property news stories around Ireland.

Stay on the real estate pulse with our five-minute digest, featuring the vital news from the week just gone.

This week, a Mayo island has come on the market for €1.25m – and construction has begun on a new shopping centre in Bray. 

1. This island is up for sale – and some want the government to buy it

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A deserted island two miles off the coast of Galway is up for sale for €1.25 million – and the Green Party thinks the government should buy it. Once home to Iron Age settlers and medieval monks, the 80-acre rock mass known as High Island, or Ardoileán, has ancient monastic sites dating back thousands of year, as well as being bountiful in horticulture and wildlife.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said the island “is of great archaeological importance” and said that it all could be lost if the government does not purchase now. However, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan ruled out any idea of the government buying the island.

2. Reddit is opening its first office outside the US in Dublin

Social media and content aggregation network Reddit has confirmed that it is opening a Dublin office this year. Earlier this month, the company registered a new entity in Ireland. A spokesperson for Reddit confirmed that it will open the new base this year.

It has not commented on the number of roles that will be filled in Ireland but its thought the functions will include engineering and site moderation.

3. Protest against demolition of apartments for MetroLink

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Residents in Dublin City Centre marched to Dáil Eireann this week over plans to demolish an apartment block and local leisure centre to make way for MetroLink. 

People living in the College Gate apartment complex on Townsend Street on the southside were told last year that the building, including the Markievicz Leisure Centre below, are to be knocked down to make way for a new transport hub at Tara Street for the new rail line linking Dublin Airport to the city. 

4. Project begins for ‘urban street’ at vacant Bray site

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A long-awaited shopping centre at a vacant site in Bray will open in 2020, with a number of outlets already on board to take up tenancy. The Florentine Centre site in the Wicklow seaside town has been vacant for more than two decades but it has now been confirmed that construction has begun on a new three-story development.

The development will be 25,000 square metres in size and it’s scheduled to open its doors in the spring of 2020. The centre will include three anchor tenants, nine retail units, restaurant and café space and 250 car parking spaces. A five-screen Stella cinema and an Elephant and Castle restaurant have already been confirmed for the centre.

5. Sligo County Council wants free bikes for new rental scheme

shutterstock_1121169713 Shutterstock / ZAO2006 Shutterstock / ZAO2006 / ZAO2006

Sligo County Council is setting up its own dockless cycling scheme and wants a company to supply it with 50 bikes for free and to pay it a fee for the project. The council put out a tender looking for a company to supply Sligo town and its environs with a minimum of 50 bikes.

 According to the tender, the bikes must be multi-geared with a preferred seven-speed gear. They must also be suitable for “the climate and terrain of Sligo”. The tender is part of a scheme by SCC called Urban Cycle Sligo which trialled a successful pilot of the scheme last year. The council now wishes to make it a permanent feature of the town and its surroundings.

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