Daft Property - Irish Property News

GHOSTS WITH A CHANCE: Not all of Ireland’s ghost estates are half built and hopeless. Some of them have charm, such as this scheme in rural Waterford... THE IMAGES broadcast to the world of Ireland’s ghost estates invariably feature bleak unfinished construction sites under glowering skies, half-built shells of terraced housing or ugly apartment blocks, surrounded by rusting scaffolding, open manholes and wasteland. However among the 2,800 plus empty estates that blight the country’s landscape are a handful of high-end developments – a strange mixture of vanity projects and architectural follies – that stand out not just for their extravagance but because (unlike the bulk of abandoned developments) they are complete, and are situated in stunning, if sometimes remote, locations. Several have ocean views, others are in exclusive suburbs, most push boundaries in terms of design, but all remained unsold when originally launched. In this series we look at luxurious estates that are l...

Trophy seaside home tells story of the boom... IF A SINGLE house could tell the story of the property boom then it might be Sorrento Villa on Vico Road in Dalkey, Co Dublin. The Victorian detached house, facing the sea, slumbered up on the hill for decades, its interior divided into two spacious units that would have been described as flats rather than apartments. The house dates from the 1860s when it was built by a provost of Trinity College as a summer villa: and he chose one of the finest sites on the hill with a sunny east-to-south exposure. Two years ago when property prices reached fever pitch, it came on the market with an Advised Minimum Value (AMV) of €4.5 million. However, after intense bidding at auction it sold for €5.6 million. Stamp duty at 9 per cent added an additional €500,000. The new owners went on to spend many thousands more on redecorating the rooms and making changes to the layout, converting it to a five-bedroom house. They also drew up plans to install an expe...

'Hot' buyers wait in the wings for market to bottom out... ESTATE AGENTS who feel they may never complete another good sale should be cheered by some new research from Sherry Fitz-Gerald. A survey carried out by the company suggests there are over 650 buyers with an estimated €831 million to spend in the Dublin residential market - as soon as prices have stabilised. Group chief executive Mark Fitz-Gerald sees prices bottoming out in the next six months, with prices having already dropped by 35 per cent in some neighbourhoods. The survey carried out among the company's branches has identified 656 "hot buyers" in the Dublin area; people who have expressed a strong interest in buying in the coming months. An additional 74 buyers are poised to spend €26 million in Cork city, according to the agency's research. Sherry FitzGerald found that 65 buyers are waiting in the wings to buy property in Ballsbridge, with a collective budget of €129 million. In the area stretc...