Fee Simple Disposal – Baldoyle

Dublin City Council owns the freehold (fee simple) of many units in Baldoyle Industrial Estate. It has leased them to businesses over the years. Earlier council reports refer to leases granted by DCC for 99 years on the estate. A 2016 report, for example, proposed selling the council's fee simple interest in Unit 110 on the estate. Selling the fee simple means the council gives up its freehold reversion, and the current leaseholder becomes the outright owner. The council usually does this when the leaseholder has a legal right to buy.

Council property disposals are governed by Section 183 of the Local Government Act 2001. Its rules, as set out in council reports, are:

• The report must be circulated to councillors, and the council must meet to decide on it after ten clear days.
• The elected members can approve the disposal on the terms in the report, approve it on different terms, or refuse it.

Council reports on these sales usually set out a price that the Chief Valuer considers fair and reasonable. They also say the applicant pays the council's valuer's and legal fees. For example, the Law Agent confirms that the lessee has a statutory entitlement to purchase the freehold. Where the lease is covered by the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Acts, the price follows a statutory formula.

These sales are routine, and the council has handled many of them in recent years. Councillors approve them in batches, for example in the March 2025 package that included Donnybrook and Sundrive Road, Crumlin. The sales matter because they turn council-owned land into privately owned land. They also bring in a one-off payment and remove a long-term ground-rent income stream. Section 183 requires councillors to approve each sale in a public meeting, so there is a public record of each disposal.