dublin landings greystar

US based developer Greystar has recently made their entry into Ireland – and after their involvement in our Republic of Ireland Development Conference we’ve been speaking exclusively with Managing Director Claire Solon…

Q. Greystar has spread to many countries across the world, what led Greystar to move to the Irish market when you debuted back in 2019?

We brought our vertically integrated platform combining investment, development and management to Europe seven years ago when we opened our office in London. We scaled up quickly and are now operational in seven markets with nearly 30,000 beds and units under management across Europe. Our growth has been driven by opportunity and underpinned by strong market fundamentals. [emaillocker id=”71749″]

Ireland, and in particular Dublin, was an attractive location because professionally managed rental accommodation is in short supply. We saw an opportunity to get in at ground level at Dublin Landings to deliver a product that has not been seen in the city before with high quality design and operational excellence.  Ireland has a strong economic profile and we recognise the opportunity in terms of delivering quality rental accommodation and a strong support service on site for our residents.

The difference with Greystar is that we can manage the entire residential platform from site acquisition, through design and development and onto lease up and property management.

Q. How is Greystar building in a sense of place and community with your upcoming Dublin Landings Development?

Resident experience is at the heart of our approach and our dedicated onsite teams work hard to foster a sense of community amongst people who choose one our developments as their home. Social interaction is facilitated by a packed programme of events, so residents use the amenities – including the gym, residents’ lounges and roof terraces – and get to know one another encouraging them to put down long term roots. 

Our on-site team are highly trained and dedicated to delivering a fantastic service to our residents, as evidenced by the high scores we are achieving on the Kingsley surveys undertaken.  It has been more challenging in recent times with COVID related restrictions, but activities such as our sea front runs have been a great success and allow residents to interact in a safe environment and create a sense of community.

Greystar’s developments pioneer community living worldwide, offering exceptional customer service to create a curated living experience for our residents and enhanced environments for the wider neighbourhood.  Our communities enable residents, at different life stages and income levels, to enjoy the benefits of fully managed communities with superior specifications and amenities. It is an exciting way of living, where well designed and managed apartments, amenities and public space combine to create spaces that respond to modern lifestyles and working patterns.  We draw on the wealth of experience gained nearly 30 years to design, develop and operate environments that provide stable, long term, high quality homes and resident services.

Q. You included office space within the development, how does Greystar create unique work spaces?

We have provided co-working space in our development as we noted that people were increasingly being offered flexibility between the home and office by their companies. This trend has obviously been accelerated by the global pandemic and we expect our co-working space to be actively utilised in the future.

The Greystar design standards provide guidance on the location, relationship, size and layout of spaces within the development based on creating a successful resident experience and operational efficiency.  The standards follow the principal of designing from the inside out while respecting the constraints of the local context and allowing the freedom to create an aesthetic response to the context.

Included within the design standards are a range of apartment typologies and guides on amenity space by amenity type. The apartment typologies reflect the current market trends and are continually reviewed and updated in response to the market analysis. The type of amenity provision depends on the demographic and cohort analysis of the location and what we expect will be preferred by our residents.

Q. How is Ireland different from the other rental markets that Greystar operates in?

The success of our approach is understanding our customer in each market. If we understand who our likely resident will be, we can take all of the knowledge that we have gathered globally to create an optimised rental building and tailor it for the market. This could include changing the amenities we offer, adding touches of local arts or heritage at the interior design stage or reconfiguring rooms to suit cultural preferences.  Our team in Dublin has specific expertise in investment, development and operational perspectives.  This means that we can utilise the vast experience within Greystar internationally and apply it with an understanding of the local attributes and requirements.

Q. How does Greystar hope to grow on the Irish market and what do your future plans hold?

We are actively on the lookout for residential sites to acquire, as we want to scale up our development portfolio in Dublin.  This includes sites with an existing planning permission, or that are zoned to allow for residential uses.  We are also engaging on a number of well located forward purchase and forward fund opportunities.

Q. Greystar also manage the flats you develop, how does that shape your approach to development?

We have specialised in rental housing for nearly 30 years, which means we have a wealth of consumer data, knowledge and experience.          The operational team is instrumental in the design and build process working closely with our in-house global design team to ensure each building provides an exceptional experience for residents and runs at peak efficiency. For example, we build in extra wide corridors, oversized door frame and larger lifts to reduce the wear and tear of people moving in and out.  The location and layout of the back of house uses are extremely important in creating an environment that operates effectively for our residents, whilst ensuring operational efficiencies in terms of running costs.  Bin stores, plant rooms, linkages and adjacencies of support uses – these are all driven by the expertise within the Greystar portfolio and management of approx. 660,000 units globally.

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