Real estate company Hines and its Dutch pension fund partner APG Asset Management have announced plans to invest up to €1.1B on build-to-rent development opportunities in Dublin.

This includes €400M already allocated to the construction of 1,269 BTR apartments, including 130 social units, at Cherrywood Town Centre over the next three years.

Hines and APG said they had agreed to spend an additional €700M in expanding their BTR platform to around 3,000 units across the greater Dublin area.

John Sisk & Son has been contracted to build the initial blocks in the Cherrywood development and construction work on that scheme began Monday.

“Hines has spent the last two years putting in place the essential infrastructure for the town centre and wider project and we hope this will be the first of many building projects to get underway in the next few years at Cherrywood,” Hines’ Senior Managing Director Brian Moran said.

In May, Hines got the go-ahead from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for the 2.1M SF Cherrywood development. The €1B mixed-use scheme will also include 585K SF retail and office space. Leisure space will include three new parks, an all-weather multipurpose pitch, tennis and basketball courts and sports pavilion, 5.4 kilometres of roadways, pedestrian footpaths, cycle paths, greenways and over 3,000 trees.

Speaking at a launch event to mark the beginning of the construction work, Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy, TD said Cherrywood is now officially the largest urban development in the country and will result in around 8,000 new homes becoming available in the area.