Sotheby's certainly knows how to throw a party and it did just that last week to launch an exhibition of paintings by the early 20th century artist, Alfred Munnings. Over 1,000 people packed into their Bond Street showrooms, to view the paintings and sip champagne from 12 inch flutes. Munnings made his name on an early painting of Kilkenny horse fair, which is now worth a fortune, and became one of the most prolific, and sought after painters of horses.
There was a good Irish contingent, many of them invited by Ganly Walters which is affiliated to Sotheby's International Realty. Businessman Kevin Kenny and his wife Simone Judd, the Hon Desmond Guinness and Sotheby's man in Ireland Bill Montgomery.
Ganly Walters' Paul McDowell and Robert Ganly returned to Dublin in time to host a slightly smaller party at their Baggot Street offices to launch a report on the Dublin office market by their other UK affiliates King Sturge.
All Hallows sites achieve record northside sales
How much is a housing site in the north inner city worth these days? Off Griffith Avenue, individual sites have been selling for no less than £350,000 in part of the grounds of All Hallows College. Developer John Flynn put 26 fully serviced sites on the market before Christmas and sold 18 of them in the meantime. His agent, David Rogers, reckons that families planning to build their own 2,400 sq ft houses stand to save £100,000 to £150,000 on the completed house, based on a completion value of £750,000. That is if they can find a builder who can do the job. Mind you, it's a not a free for all design-wise because you have to build according to approved plans. Rogers is now taking bookings for the remaining eight sites. An adjoining site for 60 townhouses has been sold on to Zoe Developments, a small job for a company which is increasingly moving into the high yield commercial market.
Creative signs sell mixed message
A rash of estate agency advertising has broken out on bus shelters all over Dublin. Lisney, HOK, and Douglas Newman Good have all taken space on these highly visible media - on one Dublin 6 site both HOK and Douglas Newman Good are back to back. The big difference is the creative approach. Lisney's and Sherry FitzGerald's are simple and solid, showing just the familiar red and black sale sign; HOK's features a giraffe which must cause a little confusion on the Number 10 route as it looks a little like an ad for the zoo, but the real jaw dropper for all the wrong reasons is DNG. It shows two cute pre-schoolers - one crying, the other beaming. The smiling child is happy because daddy picked Douglas Newman Good and vice versa. The pester power element is bad enough, but do they really think that daddy still makes all the decisions?
