THIS MIGHT NOT seem an unusual prospect in the current property market: a whole block of apartments up for sale.

However, Sandford Lodge in Ranelagh, Dublin 6 is not a ghost estate or unfinished building: all 119 apartments are fully let and the office building in the development is let to the National Adult Literacy Agency on a 9-year 11-month basis (the lease started in 2007).

As a result the asking price is €26 million.

The sales agent for the property, Savills, says that the combined gross income for the development is currenty €2.08m a year. One-bed apartments there currently let for €1,195 per month; two-beds for €1,480; three-beds for €1,775 and each of the four semi-detached coach houses on site for €2,070. NALA pays €125,040 per year in their lease.

Said Fergus O’Farrell of Savills today:

No unit in the scheme has been disposed of hence a purchaser will control the entire scheme. This is rare and adds to the overall offer. Notwithstanding that this is an absolutely prime scheme, a purchase at this level will still be below replacement cost.

The talking up of the development is to be expected from the sales agent, but it is worth noting that Savills managed to sell The Alliance building in the Gasworks near the Grand Canal docks for €40m back in May to an international property investment firm, Kennedy Wilson. A month after the sale, a spokesperson for Kennedy Wilson told the Irish Times that they were “seeing significant opportunities in the residential space, particularly in Ireland”.