New hotel development in the Dublin market is facing a financial cliff edge in the months ahead, according to industry experts.
p to 5,000 hotel rooms were under construction in the capital before the pandemic, with almost half due for completion this year.
"The return for those funders is going to be much different now than when they commenced supporting those projects," said corporate recovery partner at Crowe Ireland, Aiden Murphy, a hotel industry expert.
"A lot of those projects are funded with alternative funders. Are they willing to take a longer-term view of the Dublin market? Or do they need to take a haircut on the investment they've made into these hotels in order to repatriate capital quicker?
"I think over the next two to three months that they'll have hard decisions to make," he said. A construction industry source said there were "major fears" in the sector that commercial activity, particularly in hotels, "will fall off the edge of a cliff".
"Guys are very concerned because they can see the edge of the cliff approaching rapidly as international investors are pausing or deferring decisions until the uncertainty of Covid-19 passes," said the construction source.
He said travel restrictions meant demand for hotels "could essentially collapse for the next two years".