Developer Sean Mulryan’s Ballymore has acquired about 13 acres of the lands at Naas Racecourse with a view to developing hundreds of new homes on the site.

The Irish Times understands that Ballymore paid upwards of €7.8 million in an off-market deal for the lands which are zoned for residential use. The price paid equates to an average of €600,000 an acre, which is broadly in line with the sums being paid for zoned residential land elsewhere in Dublin’s commuter belt counties.

Ballymore is expected to submit a planning application to Kildare County Council within the coming months for the development of between 250 and 300 homes on the site, consisting of a mix of houses and duplexes. Efforts to contact Mr Mulryan for comment on the matter were unsuccessful.

Ballymore’s interest in, and purchase of the racecourse site isn’t entirely surprising given the success the developer has experienced over recent years with its various new-homes schemes in Naas and its environs. Only recently, Ballymore brought the second phase of houses to the market at Stonehaven, the 320-unit development it is in the process of completing on the Dublin-bound side of the N7 just outside the town. Other newly developed Ballymore schemes in Naas include Stoneleigh, Longstone, Piper’s Hill, Bellingsfield, and Station Walk in the nearby town of Newbridge.