Fair City

• From time to time, the circumstances are just right for a particular city to find itself at the epicentre of the industry as far as development and planned projects are concerned. At the moment, in Europe at least, Dublin can lay claim to that crown.

The pipeline in the Irish capital is truly remarkable and is showing no signs of stopping – since the turn of the year we have reported on more than 10 new projects, some from local developers and operators, and some from established international brands such as SACO’s Locke and Staycity (which has its HQ in Dublin).

Interestingly the aparthotel concept is all the rage, rather than traditional serviced apartments, with the vast majority of new projects fitting in to this category. And these are not small undertakings – most of the new schemes have at least 100 units, with the latest to be announced – by Marlet Property as part of a huge mixed-use scheme near the Guinness Storehouse – featuring a whopping 507 keys.

The overall level of development in Dublin is not yet on a par with the Celtic Tiger years but there is a palpable sense of excitement and ambition in the city, particularly as it looks to capitalise on its potential position post-Brexit.