It has been another challenging year as worldwide uncertainty continued with rising global turbulence and changing norms. However, Bartra Wealth Advisors believes there are always new opportunities. Our advice is to ensure you ‘have choices in life’, which means creating opportunities and alternatives – whether that’s choosing a better place to live, a more suitable job, a higher quality of life or a better education system for families and children as well as a stronger economy to grow and diversify wealth.
As the year winds down, we are delighted to announce that, at Bartra, we achieved many milestones in 2022, which we would like to share with you.
We had a successful project completion this year despite the high cost of construction. Poole House, a six-storey social housing project in Poplar Row was completed within budget in Q2, offering 39 apartments in a convenient city centre location in Dublin 3. So far, we have completed three social housing projects and three nursing homes, and we have three more social housing projects and one nursing home currently under construction. In addition, Bartra has several IIP projects that are either at the application or planning stage.
We successfully sold our nursing home and social housing portfolios to institutional investors. In August, Bartra Healthcare sold a portfolio of nursing homes to Belgian REIT Aedifica NV/SA at a price of €161 million. The portfolio consists of two brand new nursing homes located in Loughshinny (Skerries) and Northwood (Santry), an HSE transitional care unit in Beaumont (Artane), and the forward purchase of Clondalkin Lodge nursing home, which is currently under development.
Clonross, Old Navan Road social housing project will complete in March 2023. A forward purchase has been secured with the acquisition of the development without furniture, white goods, or floor finishes.
We had IIP applications from more than 160 families this year – the highest-ever number. This figure represents over 20% of all worldwide IIP applications and is equivalent to over 60% of the global applications in 2021. Apart from winning clients’ trust as the number one go-to company for Irish immigration and the preferable IIP partner, particularly for the Enterprise Investment option, this also demonstrates the ability of our team to secure a large volume of IIP-qualifying projects and slots for our IIP investors.
Bartra client Luna and her daughter Ellie received their repayment from investing in Loughshinny nursing home.
Bartra client Bruce visiting his social housing investment project at Poplar Row with Bartra’s Richie Lenehan.
We made almost 100 repayments to investors this year, which is even more than our September announcement of 93 investor repayments, with a repayment value of close to €100 million. This is the largest repayment value in IIP history delivered by a single Irish developer. We are delighted that we are able to provide the best IIP projects and services for our clients to ensure a straightforward and enjoyable journey to investing and living in Ireland.
This year, we invited our clients who received their repayments to visit the project they invested in. Among them, we have been thrilled to see some clients reinvesting into our other non-IIP portfolio which includes Bartra’s co-living projects, to an investment value of €16 million, showing their confidence in Bartra’s businesses.
The key benefit of the IIP for many investors is the prospect of residency rights in Ireland within a short timeframe. Bartra continues to maintain a 100% approval rate with 35 approvals this year and an average eight-month approval time. We are due to receive more approvals in early 2023 and we are confident that our strong track record will remain with more clients around the world set to obtain their PR approvals, including from Vietnam and the US. In addition, we have maintained our 100% renewal rate performance, having helped 78 clients successfully renew their 1st and 2nd residence permissions.
At Bartra, we always strive to develop engaging educational content to introduce Ireland and Bartra. Following last year’s publication of our first Ireland Guidebook, this year, we filmed two series of videos in Ireland for the first time – Life In Ireland and Unlocking Ireland – where our staff members Yating Tao and Richard Lenehan took people on a virtual tour to discover Ireland visiting places including local schools, the most liveable neighbourhoods and popular districts as well as Bartra project sites. We also filmed four new episodes of our Immigration Insights video series in which we work with reputable partners to discuss the topics that our clients care about most.
Left: The Sidings commercial development. Right: Glensavage residential development in Blackrock Dublin
As part of Bartra Group, we are pleased to see the achievements of the group’s other business sectors, including:
- Commercial – the construction of The Sidings by Bartra, a new €140m 10-storey, Grade A landmark office building in the heart of Silicon Docks in Dublin, is making good progress and is due to be completed in Q3 next year for occupation in H2 2023.
- Henley Bartra, the joint venture between UK investor firm Henley Investment Management and Bartra Group, has secured two new lettings and a lease extension in the Riverwalk Office Park at the Citywest Business Campus in Dublin. Citywest Business Campus is a portfolio comprising 11 buildings, development sites and car parks which was acquired by Henley Bartra in 2019.
- Residential – Glensavage in Blackrock Dublin by Bartra New Homes and designed by award-winning architects De Blacam and Meagher, offering 14 apartments, five detached houses and three gate lodges is nearly sold out with just one remaining 797sqft one-bed apartment.
This year has been an amazing one for Bartra and we would like to take this opportunity to thank our clients and friends, peers and partners, for all of your dedication, support and hard work.
Looking ahead, we see many families from all over the world choosing Ireland as a place to reside. Last year, in 2021, while the world was in lockdown, Ireland’s population rose above 5 million for the first time since 1851 and this year had a record number of IIP applications. We are confident that our business will remain strong next year and we look forward to another successful year full of opportunities in 2023.
Until then, on behalf of everyone here at Bartra, we wish you a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year!