Sales Results: A handful of large period houses in Dublin 4 and 6 sold well at auction yesterday, showing that there are still plenty of buyers out there for well-located homes.
In Ballsbridge, a large semi-detached redbrick on Raglan Road in Dublin 4 fetched over €9.3 million after auction through Colliers Jackson-Stops. Though there were several potential buyers in the room for the property, which has been run as a guest-house, only one bidder emerged and it was not until auctioneer Peter Kenny withdrew the property that the real negotiating began. Sherry FitzGerald proved the point again in Dublin 6 when it fetched €9.05 million under the hammer for 1 Temple Gardens, a substantial semi-detached house on one of the area's loveliest roads.
Back at Colliers Jackson-Stops, Peter Kenny again fetched a strong price after auction for 5 St James's Terrace, a large Victorian semi-detached house on Clonskeagh Road, Dublin 6, for many years the home of the Leprosy Mission charity. The house was withdrawn at €6.51 million and sold shortly afterwards for a figure believed to be very close to the withdrawal price.
The sales may give a much needed fillip to the market and, while elsewhere in the auction rooms there was a high percentage of withdrawals, some estate agents are reporting good levels of interest after auction and firm offers for houses withdrawn in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, outside Dublin, large country properties have been selling extremely well, particularly those with decent parcels of land. In Co Tipperary, Dromard House, Templemore, a five-bedroom period house on 252 acres was sold for €4.3 million through Nolan & Brophy Auctioneers.
The property was sold only last year for a figure between €3 and €3.5 million, having failed to find a buyer in 2004 when it was available at €3 million.
Meanwhile in Co Kildare, Yeomanstown House Lodge, a pretty period house on 26 acres was withdrawn at €4 million by Colliers Jackson-Stops and sold later for higher. However, the most expensive country property of the week, Gerardstown House and Stud at Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, a period house on 180 acres, was withdrawn at €12 million by Jordan Auctioneers and Coonan Real Estate Alliance.
Sell out on the Quays
When the price is right and the location is good there are still plenty of buyers around as Lisney found last week, when they launched just eight apartments in a big old Georgian townhouse on Lower Ormond Quay in the city centre.
One-beds were available at €350,000 while two-beds started at €400,000 - and they were gone within minutes. A queue formed immediately for any cancellations. The demand here shows that there is huge interest in converted buildings like this and it's a shame that builders aren't converting more of them. What happened to that "Living over the Shop" tax scheme that showed so much promise but was bogged down with building regulations and restrictions, not to mention the very limited number of streets that were included in the scheme. Inner city streets are full of old empty upper floors that have not been used for years and which could be converted into great city homes for those who want to get to work without an hour of commuting.
Strong sales of new homes across Dublin
Estate agents reported another spate of successful new homes launches last weekend.
Hooke & MacDonald sold 140 apartments at Heuston South Quarter (HSQ) for Rhatigan Commercial Developments racking up an impressive €90 million in sales. One-bedroom apartments there started at €380,000 with two-beds at €520,000. The same agency also sold 110 houses and apartments at Stocking Wood, Rathfarnham for Deane Homes along with joint selling agent Orchard. Two-bed apartments there were priced from €410,000 and three-bed houses from €595,000.
On the northside of the city, Gunne New Homes sold 30 of the 35 units that were released at Durkan Residential's Creston development on St Margaret's Road in Finglas, Dublin 11. A scheme of 141 townhouses, duplexes and apartments, prices ranged from €270,000 for one-beds to €465,000 for four-bed houses. Owen Reilly, director of Gunne New Homes, says most of the units were bought by first-timers but that three and four-bed homes attracted young families.
Also in Dublin 11, in the Parkview development by Lyndonbarry in Poppintree, Gunne New Homes sold 32 out of 40 units. Again these were purchased mainly by first-time buyers with young families going for the two and three-bed duplexes and townhouses. These were priced from €260,000 for one-beds and from €340,000 for two-beds and duplexes. Three-bed townhouses started at €385,000.
Owen Reilly says that, while the market is strong, "buyers out there do have a lot of choice".
Hamilton Osborne King says it had to release an extra block of two-bed apartments at St Edmunds, a Glenkerrin development on the former St Loman's hospital grounds near Liffey Valley in west Dublin. Catherine O'Connor of Hamilton Osborne King says 63 out of 89 units were sold, mostly to first-time buyers. Prices were from €300,950 for one-beds and from €345,950 for smaller two-beds but, according to O'Connor, larger two-beds for €360,950 were the most popular with buyers.
"There's been a lot of doom and gloom with another interest rate rise predicted for December," says O'Connor, "but some are taking the view that they should get in now before prices rise further, although they're only likely to rise in single figures next year."
