OCP Belgrave
Also known as: OCP Belgrave Limited Partners Limited, OCP Belgrave Ii General Partners Limited, Ocp Jameson General Partners Limited and Ocp Belgrave General Partners Limited.
Linked to 4 companies in Ireland
OCP Belgrave is the Irish wing of OCP (Orange Capital Partners), a Dutch investment firm.
OCP invests mostly in property and asset management and values its own portfolio at approximately €5 billion. They run a company called LIV that owns and manages a lot of property in the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark. In these countries, they own residential property as well as golf courses and retail property.
What we do - Orange Capital Partners
Since first arriving in Ireland in 2018, OCP have purchased over 1000 residential units for rent.
In 2018, their first purchase in Ireland was a portfolio of properties bought from Lugus Capital/Grayling Properties, called the “Belgrave Portfolio”. This consisted of “30 buildings that were split into 265 individual apartments”.
Lugus Capital / Grayling - Landlord Database
These were all former bedsits that were newly renovated by Grayling in Dublin 2, 4 and 6. Grayling Properties still acts as the property manager and letting agent for these properties.
In the "What We Do" section of their website, OCP say they emphasise "the affordable housing sector in North-Western Europe". It is interesting to note that they consider €1304 per month an affordable price for a 1-bedroom apartment, like this one that was advertised for rent in October 2024.
1 bed apartment - daft.ie (archive version)
In one RTB case from 2023, a tenant who was paying €1250 per month with assistance from the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) was evicted after some mistakes with HAP meant his payments were delayed and stopped. He fell into arrears and "made a number of efforts to contact the Landlord to resolve the issue however he stated that they were not willing to compromise".
Report of Tribunal Reference No: TR1122-005816 / Case Ref No: 0822-79208 - RTB
When asked why the landlord started trying to evict the tenant when these difficulties arose instead of trying to resolve matters directly through other means, the landlord's agent stated that “they had a right to serve the warning letters and the notice of termination." In other words, they just wanted him out so they could let it for more money and less hassle.
The same flat - Flat 3, 2 Charleville Road, Rathmines - was recently advertised for rent for €1343 per month (on 6th September 2024), an increase of 7.43%. Because this flat is in a Rent Pressure Zone, legally the landlord cannot increase the rent more than 2% per year, even for new tenancy - unless there were substantial renovations.
Flat 3, 2 Charleville Road - daft.ie (archive version)
In March-April 2020, The Times reported on a "flood" of renovated bedsits in Dublin becoming available. 24 studios were advertised for rent by Belgrave Property Management (a subsidiary of Grayling Property Management that managed the "Belgrave Portfolio" which OCP had bought in 2018).
The same agency had previously been advertising similar studios for rent in January and February 2020 (pre-lockdown), notably one for 17 sq m, “about the same size as a disabled car parking space” for €1,286 per month.
Inside the renovated Dublin bedsits making investors a fortune - The Times (archive version)
During the early months of 2020 lockdown, Belgrave Property Management also memorably emailed their tenants "telling them not to do “high-impact” exercise in their homes.... as it “could cause the ceiling to collapse”, a clear testament to the standard of the properties which they own.
Tenants told that workouts could make flats fall apart - The Times (archive version)
OCP are linked to 16 RTB eviction cases. This sounds like a relatively small amount, because their business model is to buy mostly empty properties from other companies. The previous owners - most notably Lugus Capital / Grayling Properties - have done the dirty work of evicting previous tenants, presumably to maximise the re-sale price.