IT HAS BEEN announced that the Clarion Hotel, the biggest hotel in Cork, has come onto the market for €30 million.

There is also set to be a major investment by the government of half a billion into the construction sector. 

Here’s all the week’s property news.

The Big Movers

Hotel for sale 

The four-star Clarion Hotel in Co Cork has come onto the market for €30 million.

The 191-bedroom facility is the biggest hotel in the county and is situated in the City Quarter overlooking Lapps Quay.

With a sale price of €30 million, the hotel’s rent of €2.4 million annually represents an initial yield of 7.66%.

The Clarion Hotel in Co Cork Tony Healy Tony Healy

Housing investment 

The government is set to invest €500 million in building 11,000 new houses – something that will create nearly 2,000 constructions jobs a year.

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund will be working with US investment firm KKR Credit on the new venture.

The fund will focus exclusively on Irish residential housing projects and will facilitate developers to engage in medium- and large-scale housing schemes, something that is hoped will help alleviate the housing shortage.

Coming to a halt

It seems that rising house prices in Dublin have come to a halt as people are no longer able to afford them.

New figures from the Central Statistics Office have shown a decrease for the second month in a row. In June there was a decrease of 0.4% in house prices in the capital, a slightly bigger fall than in May.

Speaking about the most recent results, Davy chief economist Conall Mac Coille said that the average house price was now five times the average earnings across the country.

“Affordability is starting to act as a constraint; our estimate is that Irish house prices are six times average incomes in Dublin but below three-to-four times in some rural areas,” he said.

Under Construction

• This week it was revealed that a review of the running of An Bord Pleanála is set to take place. 
• The Housing Agency has released a report detailing the number of houses that Ireland needs to build to deal with demand. 

The Housing Agency The Housing Agency

• Dublin City Council is considering plans to make the minimum size of an apartment 20% smaller.

Des Res

This week Business Insider has taken a look at a London property which has just been sold to American billionaire and former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg. The house, which sits close to the River Thames, sold for $23.4 million (€21.34 million).