Kennedy Wilson (KW) Buys Dublin Property, Eyes Expansion

Property giant Kennedy Wilson (NYSE:KW) recently announced the acquisition of Northbank Apartments — a wholly owned 124-unit residential community — situated in Dublin’s North Docks. The company shelled out €45 million for the buyout.

The newly acquired apartment development is situated just 50 meters away from the company-owned Liffey Trust apartments. Liffey Trust houses 84 residential units. Hence, this purchase significantly fortifies Kennedy Wilson’s presence in the dockland area. Both towers enjoy sound connectivity to the LUAS Red line that provides convenient access to Dublin’s city center as well as its main train stations.

Nortbank offers 31 one-bedroom, 64 two-bedroom and 29 three-bedroom units. These apartments are 75% occupied or with leases agreed. The property also encloses 16,000 square feet of retail space which is currently vacant and has a secure underground car parking facility.

With around 2 million square feet of office buildings either under development or planned, the building is well positioned to benefit from the growing sub-market. Further, the purchase is a strategic fit for the company, which is eyeing expansion opportunities in North Docks that offers ample scope for growth.

Northbank is a sought-after property as it is one of the few 100+ unit multi-family marketable properties remaining in Dublin. Per management, inclusion of onsite management and other amenities will add value to both residential properties. Also, management anticipates that a redevelopment program will improve Northbank’s near-term net operating income (NOI) and rental growth opportunities.

Furthermore, the company is targeting expansion of the multi-family portfolio in Europe and is aimed at offering best-in-class accommodation in cities with solid demographics. Management aims to double the company’s Europe multi-family portfolio to 5,000 units in the upcoming years.

Nonetheless, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have underperformed the industry, year to date. While the stock has declined 15.1%, the industry has recorded growth of 18.9% during this period.

Some better-ranked stocks in the real estate space are FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) , Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (NYSE:JLL) and Reis, Inc (NASDAQ:REIS) . All three stocks sport a Zacks Rank of 1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

FirstService’s Zacks Consensus Estimate for full-year 2017 remained unchanged at $1.99 over the past month. Its share price has rallied 46.1%, year to date.

For Jones Lang LaSalle, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2017 earnings has been revised upward to $8.41 in a week’s time. So far this year, the company’s shares have gained 45.4%.

For Reis, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has remained unchanged at 15 cents in a month’s time. Its share price has increased 6.3% in the past three months.

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