Irish firm on a high in London Peace has broken out at last in the Dublin residential market as agencies tot up their considerable earnings at the end of yet another bumper year.
Traditionally, the sales season tails off at the beginning of December and this year the end is coming faster because there is very little left to sell. Attention switches to London this weekend where Sean Mulryan's company Ballymore usually keeps the best until last. In this case, it's Pan Peninsula, a 50-storey block that's billed as the tallest residential tower in Europe. Ballymore often waits until just before Christmas to launch, to coincide with the roll-out of bonuses in the City, which this year are set to be the best for several years.
The product is being pitched very much at a young international financial set, as well as at investors looking to cash in on the Olympic Games coming to London in 2012. However, the Irish buyers will also be among the largest group taking a bit of the Manhattan-style tower complex, which is beside Canary Wharf. One thing is sure, Irish developers will be over there like a shot to see the knock-out marketing suite, which is contained in a floating glass box on the Thames. It's currently fitted-out with full scale apartments but, when the whole show is over, it can be floated off to a different location and reinvented as a restaurant. Trust Mulryan to come up with something new that is actually going to make him money in the long run.
UK agent protests at too many Irish callers
If you think you are getting a poor service from your Irish estate agent, spare a thought for the clients of one south London agency. Last week we featured a property on its books in Take 5, which compares prices in Ireland with those overseas. Agencies normally welcome this sort of coverage, but low and behold, Winkworths in Battersea was not amused. It phoned to register its protest at its property being mentioned. Its reason was that its switchboard had been inundated with calls from Ireland, and they were furious at having to field so many enquiries. Next time, we were told to give them advance warning of any publicity. The agency's manager was outraged at the intrusion, according to his PA, but he can rest assured that it won't happen again.
Roche reeled in as buyer of famed fishery
What do the rich buy these days when they have enough houses to be going on with? The answer could well be a stretch of fishing now that the Government looks likely to outlaw the drift fishermen who have been hammering the salmon stocks.
A member of the Roche family of Roches Stores has just snapped up the Owenmore Fishery at Dingle, Co Kerry, a magnificent wild salmon and wild trout fishery on the entire length of the River Owenmore and adjoining lakes. HOK, which sold the property, is being tight lipped on the price, though the sum of €1.5 million was bandied about when the property hit the market earlier in the season. The Roches have had stupendous success in the last two years when they reinvented their business and brought in top league fashion franchises, like Zara and Pull & Bear, not to mention Marks & Spencer to feed their well-heeled customers.
They weren't the only people chasing the fishery, as HOK took bids from several Europeans, as well as three parties from the US. The family plans to restore the river - that sounds expensive - and give it a new lease of life, just as they've done with their brand.
