Connemara beach house on 1.5 acres with views

Co Galway: €1m Galway agent Sherry FitzGerald Kavanagh is seeking offers over €1 million for a beach front house overlooking Gurteen Bay near Roundstone in Co Galway.

The house, Gurteen Beach, stands on 1.5 acres adjoining the publicly owned parkland on the Dogs Bay Peninsula. It's 1.75 miles from Roundstone village with its restaurants and pubs, and lively social life that has dubbed it Connemara 4.

Situated just above the beach with views across the water and to the Twelve Bens, the house has four bedrooms and a large open-plan livingroom with picture windows framing the view. It needs some refurbishment, and new owners may decide to remodel it completely.

Sales in the area have been very strong this year, as wealthy buyers from Dublin and Galway snap up property no matter what the condition. It's very difficult to get planning permission for one-off housing in Connemara, so existing houses, particularly those by the sea, are being snapped up at ever-rising prices.

The same agency recently fetched €1 million - €300,000 over the guide - for Ellistrim Farm, a 17-acre property near Gurteen beach, while in Roundstone it sold the old Garda Barracks, needing total refurbishment, at €515,000. "What's driving the market is the lack of opportunity to get planning," says Tony Kavanagh. "People are paying a lot now, but they will pay more in years to come."