Tipp top price at Synone
The property, which was purchased by the vendors, the Gough family in 1974 for £376,000, was purchased this week by Co Cork dairy farmer William Ahern, from Passage West.
Mr Ahern recently sold his dairy farm for development, and estimates of that sale price range from 15 to 20m.
For the first time in history, according to John Stokes of selling agents, Stokes and Quirke, a farmer has managed to outbid the bloodstock industry, and pay a record 25,000 per acre into the bargain. The original guide price given for Synone was 4.5m.
All the ‘major parties’ were represented in the auction last Monday, says Mr Stokes, and bids were fast and furious, coming in the hundreds of thousands.
The auction opened at 4m and rose to 6.5m, at which stage it was placed on the market. A flurry of bids later and the 380-acre Synone House was knocked down to Mr Ahern, who did all his own bidding.
When contacted by the Irish Examiner on Tuesday, Mr Ahern was back home milking the cows. The Ahern family, who are believed to own other substantial holdings in Cork, Limerick and Tipperary, will move 270,000 gallons of quota to their new farm which according to William is ‘a big undertaking, but we’ll be able to handle it’.
Synone will be farmed by Mr Ahern and his farm manager who has been with the family for over 20 years.
They plan to move the dairy herd in early spring.
The family’s Passage, Co Cork holding is now ‘bought and paid for’ by property developers O’Brien and O’Flynn, and upwards of 600 houses and apartments are planned: the scheme is going through planning at the moment.
Synone House, however, is a cut above the residential units planned at Passage in Cork’s lower harbour area, and is described by William Ahern as ‘out of this world’.
The auction was handled by Robert Hunt of CLPS, who were joint agents in the sale.
As part of Stokes and Quirke’s busy week, John Stokes sold a 126-acre farm at Manganstown, Kilsheelin in Co Tipperary for a phenomenal 1.67m.
No quota, no productions rights and a derelict, if lovely residence, were all part of the package which drew more than 50 bids.
The two bidders going head to head in the final moments of the auction were a solicitor acting in trust and a neighbouring farmer, who eventually bagged Manganstown for 13,400 per acre.
Stokes and Quirke have a 31 acre residential holding at Brenormore, Grangemockler, with a modern, three-bedroomed bungalow, coming to auction on November 24.
It has road frontage and an extensive range of cattle sheds and holding facilities.
