SUMMER HOMESEaster marks the beginning of the selling season in Brittas, where mobiles and houses make strong prices, writes Sandra O'Connell

WICKLOW auctioneers are readying themselves for what they hope will be the annual resurgence in holiday home interest that Easter brings.

If Rathnew-based estate agency Anne Lait Auctioneers' experience is anything to go by, the early signs look good. The agency has just sold two mobile homes in Jack's Hole, the upmarket mobile home park with its own beach.

The first went on the market last October but only sold a few weeks ago. The other went on the market a month ago and sold within two weeks.

"When it comes to Brittas, this is the season," says the firm's negotiator Aoife Byrne.

Most of the mobiles at Jack's Hole are either directly on the beach, or in a row behind it.

It was one of the former which sold fastest, put on the market at €250,000 and selling for "slightly under".

The latter, a one-bedroom mobile, sold for close to the asking price price of €115,000, she says. The prices are strong, considering that owners pay up to €8,000 a year in maintenance charges.

Brittas Bay has traditionally been a popular summer bolt-hole for well-heeled south Dubliners and its appeal hasn't waned as much as might be expected in a soft market, according to Richard McDonnell of McDonnell Properties in Ashford.

"The fact that very little land in the area is zoned for development helps keep demand up."

Demographics play a part too.

"People tend to buy them when their kids are young and sit on them until their family is fully grown, which takes time."

All of this helps keep prices stronger than the wider economic climate might suggest.

"The area's popularity extends not just to the holiday home market but into the traditional residential market too, where houses there tend to cost more than perhaps they might," says McDonnell.

Sonya O'Gorman of Sherry FitzGerald O'Gorman, which has a number of Brittas Bay properties on her books, agrees: "Brittas Bay is something of a micromarket. As soon as the days start to show promise of the summer Dubliners start thinking about the need to have great open spaces for their kids to play in and that drives the market each year."

The area should see a particularly intense burst of holiday home sales over the next few weeks.

"Once people decide to buy they tend to want to close fast, to get the most possible use out of them that year," says O'Gorman.

Very many families use them as weekend bolt-holes but in many cases wives and children spend entire summers there, with husbands commuting at weekends.

As well as mobile homes, there are holiday home developments such as seven-year-old Brittas Bay Park and Brittas Bay Village where prices range from €450,000 to €475,000, depending on orientation and size of garden.

What appeals to buyers most are developments that are well managed, with security gates to keep kids safe and with full-time caretakers that they can call to air the house before they arrive or fix things that need doing, she says.

Such developments tend to have tennis courts, good open spaces for playing, with the beach within easy walking distance.

"On rainy days proximity to Wicklow town means they can head into the coffee shops or boutiques for a look around," she says.

Given the number of rainy days occurring in an Irish summer, the arrival last year of a new indoor play centre, Kidzone, is likely to be a big plus too.