Sunday, March 21, 2010 Previous editions
Saturday, November 07, 2009
WITH 288 houses, plus dozens more unlisted new stock, listed for sale in a town with a population of just 2000, how do you sell 40 houses quickly? Slash prices, that’s how.
A receivership appointment brings new Kenmare houses to the market — at rock bottom prices.
Prices have been cut down by more than 50% to try and sell the 40 completed houses and apartments in the Rick Fitzgerald-developed Glanerought scheme of 76 units.
The dentist-turned developer, who headed up the Oran Group, has had receivers appointed to a number of various development schemes, as well as losing heavily in the 2008 sale of a Scottish waste-management company, along with a shopping mall/condo investment at Prince Edward Island, Canada which struggled before Anglo Irish Bank pulled the plug on it.
In Ireland, several schemes he developed are in various degrees of trouble, including Shanagarry in east Cork and in Kerry.
Kenmare receivership sales start from €110,000 for a two-bed apartment — and that’s about the price of many rural acre sites in the Ring of Kerry hinterland. Some Glanerought two-bed apartments are currently listed with local agents at €220,000.
Now, three-bed semis here are priced at €130,000, and detached 1,335 sq ft houses are €165,000 — with web listings this week showing identical houses in this development at €350,000.
These receivership prices correspond roughly to acre sites and run down Kenmare cottages: the impact of these forced sales on prices in other developments with unsold units in the town is expected to be considerable, and will also be felt in the already struggling local rental sector.
Kenmare town — with the 20:20 vision of hindsight — saw an unjustified splurge of new house building during the Celtic Tiger years, and a very large proportion of the many hundreds of houses built have never sold, or been occupied.
It is against this backdrop of large stock overhang that the Glanerought scheme’s prices are so competitive, pitched to sell, even in a depressed market.
Receiver Michael Cotter of Ernst and Young is acting for Anglo Irish Bank, and selling agents for Glanerought are Cohalan Downing, based in Cork city.
They will hold viewings from an on-site sales and management office tomorrow, Sunday, from 12.30pm, and houses and apartments being sold range from being fully completed, to needing floor finishes, tiling, while some need bathrooms and kitchens. An operating management company is in place.
"Out of adversity comes opportunity," quotes estate agent Malcolm Tyrell of Cohalan Downing as they prepared for the sales drive. His firm expects interest from first time buyers in particular, because of the sheer affordability of the properties, within a very short walk of a national school, Kenmare’s new SuperValu. It is also an easy walk to the town and the rest of its amenities.
Kenmare has also seen strong second-home purchases from Co Cork buyers in particular, as well as Limerick. Fifteen of the 40 units will be shown this weekend, as about 25 of the others are currently rented out.
Buyers to date in Glanerought include investors, holiday home owners and full-time owner-occupiers.
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