Record €4m house with talking jacuzzi adds up for accountant

JUST how high can house prices go? Try about €4 million for size.

A whopping 10,000 sq ft house on Cork's Rochestown Road, the size of 10 townhouses, has sold for just under €4m.

T he surprise buyer came almost from thin air. Well, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates at least. He is Edward Quinlan, an accountant based in the Persian Gulf.

Despite years working abroad, the wealthy Rolls Royce owner considers Cork home and has a sister married to county councillor Sylvester Cotter, who lives nearby in Rochestown.

Despite the sheer size of the place, on three acres on the cliched 'right' hand side of the Rochestown Road the new owner is understood to be a single man.

Gortalough has five bedrooms, a swimming pool, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, a computer-controlled Jacuzzi that talks its instructions, massive reception rooms, a library and a games room. And it still needs finishing off.

It will cost a few hundred thousand euro to decorate as rebuilding work was finished last year by its recently widowed owner and her two children.

And the bills for the new owner don't stop there.

The new resident will have to cough up €350,000 to the Irish Government at the top 9% stamp duty rate.

House hunters in the more real world of pricey €250,000 'starter homes' might take solace from the fact that some of Cork's wealthiest families were outbid in the hunt for Gortalough.

The new owner was himself a disappointed bidder the last time the 1920s-built house was sold, about four years ago, for £1m (€1.27m).

It hit the market only eight weeks ago with a 2.5m price tag with agent Margaret Kelleher of Lisneys in Cork, and was sold in record time, making a city house price record in the process.

The company would only confirm it sold to a private overseas buyer, for over its €2.5m guide.

As Lisneys' 'sold' sign went up last night, what chances they'll follow with that other sign-board cliche 'similar property wanted'?