More property news of the week in brief...

50% off draws crowd of 3,000 to Killeen Castle

IT WAS A HARD package to resist on a sunny day – a spin down to Killeen Castleto look at a development of houses where prices had been slashed by 50 per cent and where full family membership of the Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course was being thrown in as a perk.

No wonder then that nearly 3,000 people showed up to the estate outside Dunshaughlin, Co Meath last Sunday to view the houses which cost between €475,000 and €850,000.

This might have been tyre-kicking on an epic scale but, in fact, there were some serious shoppers too.

Since then, agent Sherry FitzGeraldand developers Castlethorn say that they have sold eight of the 21 houses, and that offers continue to come in.

New owners will enjoy the full run of the 600-acre estate which once belonged to advertising executive Basil Brindley.

Although there is planning permission for around 140 more houses on the estate, it’s unlikely that Castlethorn is in a hurry to build these in the near future.

More global recognition for Irish architects

THIS WEEK'S gloomy Tuesday was brightened for Grafton Architectswhen an e-mail swooshed in telling them that they had been given International Fellowships of the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects).

"We were honoured and thrilled," says Yvonne Farrellof Grafton Architects who, along with her partner Shelley McNamara, were given the life-long fellowships, which honour people "who have made a major contribution to the world of architecture, wherever in the world they practice".

"We are in very interesting company," says Farrell: other recipients included architects from Chile, the US, Burkina Faso, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Spain. "Their work represents not only the spirit of their countries but also transcends it to become truly international in its reference and influence," says RIBA president Ruth Reed.

Grafton Architects' Bocconi university building in Milan was awarded the first "World Building of the Year" prize and the same building became the first by Irish architects to reach the final shortlist of five for the Mies van der Rohe award. In Ireland the practice has been working on social housing projects in Dublin, the Department of Finance building in St Stephen's Green and an arts centre in Navan.

The RIBA announced the winner of this year's Gold Medal at the same time: it is 92-year-old IM Pei, who was born in China, practises in America and who designed the glass pyramid in the Louvre, Paris which features large in The Da Vinci Codebook.

Help is at hand to make better use of your space

MORE HELP is at hand for householders who want to make better use of the space they have, or extend it as cost-effectively as possible, rather than face the horror of selling in the present market.
When architect Angela Carr lost her job last year, she set up "Living:room" to help homeowners assess their options, make informed decisions and generally get more value from their homes.

"The problem I've come across most frequently is homes that have been badly extended, creating unusable spaces with a lack of natural light," she says. As a result, people end up paying on the double – first, when they buy the house and again when they have to fix the problems."

Part of her commitment with Living:room is to help people understand the value of good design and she's harnessed new social media outlets to get the message across, with a regular blog on planning and home design issues – www.livingroomblog.ie.

"I post my favourite examples of current and classic home design on our Facebook business page (there's a link from the blog) and tweet about my work, architecture, housing issues and design generally at www.twitter.com/livingroombuzz.

Angela Carr can also be reached by e-mail at info@ultraviolet.ie.

Laws on apartments clear as MUD

A MINIMUM of snagging by developers means that service charges are being used by apartment owners to make good their estates. That was one of the stark findings heard by delegates at last weekend's IPFMA Conference, which was chaired by Siobhan O'Dwyer of O'Dwyer Property Management. The industry gathering of the Irish Property Facility Management Associationalso heard reports that there were serious flaws in the manner in which fire safety systems are being completed and certified or, in many cases, not completed or certified.

Equally worrying for apartment owners, legal experts identified a complete lack of assurances and entitlement for legal remedy or recourse by the purchaser against the developer in the event that defects occur.

The conference followed on from a recent IPFMA submission to government, which called for significant amendments to the draft Multi-Unit Developments (MUD) Bill 2009, prior to its enactment into legislation.

The IPFMA welcomes the advent of the new Bill but believes that its legislative proposals are not sufficiently all encompassing and do not go far enough to protect owners of future multi-unit developments by providing an effective and workable legal framework. As the organisation is made up of professionals working on the ground, including property managers, surveyors and engineers, who spend their working days dealing with problems in new apartment blocks, their opinions are certainly worth listening to.

Energy efficiency in old houses

THE COLD air that blows through the floorboards isn't the only thing that makes owners of period houses shiver. There's also the dread of ever having to face a Building Energy Rating(BER) and the future cost of fossil fuels.

A new series of day-long seminars should help owners of protected structures, as well as owners of any traditionally-built historic house, figure out how they can improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Experts, including conservation architect Paul Arnold and Peter Smith, a specialist eco building project manager, will explain how to get the most return for the least cost by doing "as much as necessary and as little as possible" to ensure a comfortable and sustainable home to live in.

The seminars are organised by the Irish Georgian Society(IGS) in partnership with local authority conservation and heritage officers with the support of the Department of the Environment and the ESB. The seminars are in Dublin (Oct 19th); Kilkenny (Oct 20th); Roscommon (Nov 12th); Offaly (Nov 25th) and Cork (date to be decided). For information or to book (€40 per place) call IGS at 01-6767053 or see www.igs.ie.