WITH the new homes market on the floor, some builders are apparently finding it difficult to punch in the hours now that the days are getting longer and there is little point in doing any more with half-finished sites. There is only so much time you can spend with a bank manager whose hands are tied or the Nama guys who want yet more valuations on land that cost a fortune during the property boom and is now worth diddly squat.

Anyone in this situation might well take a leaf out of the book of Wexford builder Seamus Neville who wound down his operation here when the bubble burst and switched his attention to the UK market, where he has been quietly building since the early 1990s.

He is currently well advanced on two mixed developments (apartments and offices) at Southwark in London and in Nottingham. Some of his key staff were quick to relocate to the UK when building operations slowed down here and in recent times, Irish tradesmen have been showing up and pitching for work.

Neville bought several landbanks in the greater Dublin area when land was cheap. He paid €6.4 million in 1995 for the 140-acre Cherrywood estate where he has already built and sold almost 700 homes. There are still another 90 acres to develop and with no less than two Luas stops on the estate, the planners are likely to opt for a mainly high-density development beside these transport hubs.