Vesta Living to spend €85m on 290-unit block

Ireland’s first entirely online rental platform targeting 5,000 units over 10 years, writes Sean Pollock

VESTA Living, Ireland’s first entirely online rental platform, is to develop a 290-unit site in north Dublin as part of an investment worth around €85m.

In an interview with the Sunday Independent, Rick Larkin, executive director of Vesta, confirmed that he had agreed to terms on a site near the company’s 376 units in Clongriffin, Co Dublin. The development is currently at the legal stage, which has been made difficult due to the pandemic, but he hopes to formally announce the new site “within the next few weeks”.

“We have agreed terms on another piece of land for about 300 apartments quite nearby,” he said. “I can’t say where exactly, as we don’t have permission from the seller, but it is quite near [Clongriffin].

“It is quite difficult with the legal [side] now, but I hope that by the end of April, we will be able to announce it, so long as lawyers can get it together working from home.”

Larkin, who is also a director with property company Twinlite, said Vesta had been working on acquiring more land before the pandemic. He said the firm was targeting developments in suburban Dublin aimed at commuters.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in Ireland, the development in Clongriffin has experienced a 12pc uptick in the number of leases signed over the first two weeks of April compared with February.

Larkin said this uptick is a result of the company’s app, which allows renters to view their apartment, upload their documents, sign their lease, get a digital key and enter their apartment without physically meeting anyone.

“Real estate has been affected quite a bit,” he said. “You can’t have viewings, and you can’t meet people. It’s a very in-person industry.

“We are renting apartments almost every day without meeting anyone, and the leases are still rolling in. It’s something we probably weren’t expecting; people would typically put these decisions off in uncertain times. But it doesn’t appear to be happening for us. That’s probably a lot to do with the fact that, despite the pandemic, the housing crisis rumbles on.”

With business performing better than expected, Larkin admitted there had been some interest in acquiring the Vesta platform.

“We are looking at licensing it, but it’s probably a longer-term project because we have a lot on our plate,” he said.

“We have been approached by a lot of people asking if they can have it, but so far we have said no to that.”

Larkin added that Vesta feels it could occupy a good spot in the Irish rental marketplace, with the firm planning on developing 5,000 units over a 10-year timeline: “So long as we can keep attracting investment, we will keep on building.”