There were two large property sales in Dublin in July, both bought by German investors. Firstly, a real estate fund managed by Deutsche Bank subsidiary DWS paid €145m to acquire a portfolio of 317 residential units that the MKN Property Group is developing in Dublin.

The deal will see DWS secure ownership of the Prestige portfolio, a mix of existing and new-build apartments and houses distributed across four schemes in the north Dublin suburbs of Swords, Raheny, Clontarf and Killester. The deal was the largest PRS build-to-rent sale in Ireland this year.

Also, UK property company Henderson Park Capital is understood to have sold the Dublin headquarters of the EBS Building Society to the German investment fund KGAL for €94m. The purchase represents KGAL’s second investment in the Dublin office market. In 2018, the German-headquartered fund paid Irish property group MM Capital €25.5m for a three-storey office block.

In a statement confirming KGAL’s purchase, the company’s managing director, André Zücker, said: “Dublin is a very attractive location for global IT companies, with Google, Facebook and Amazon all operating their European head offices in the Irish capital. These companies are continuing to experience dynamic growth and fuel the office market. Ireland has the youngest population in the EU and the level of education there is high; and demographic forecasts indicate growth ahead.”