200-acre farm in North Cork could exceed €3,000,000
Summer is the time when many vendors put their best foot forward, particularly when selling large holdings.
One of the biggest farms in Munster is now on the market for sale by private treaty with Sherry Fitzgerald O’Donovan in Mallow.
All eyes will be on this part of North Cork to see what emerges.
In an area that has set some very strong prices already this year, this is a farm that will surely set down an important marker that will be discussed for some months to come.
The 200-acre non-residential holding is in the townland of Wallstown, about 6km from the village of Castletownroche in North Cork, where the National Ploughing Championships took place 19 years ago.
This is an area of very good land, generally speaking, and the initial impression of this holding would lead one to believe it to be a good example of the locality’s strong farming tradition.
It is all in tillage at the moment and selling agent Michael O’Donovan describes “top quality tillage lands in a high state of fertility”.
He expects interest from all over the country.
“There’s no waste,” says Michael. “You can till every inch of it. Blocks of land like this one are becoming increasingly scarce.
"There’s also a 10,000 square foot farm shed there, to use for storing grain or straw but it has planning permission to be converted to other uses if needs be.”
The location of the farm is very good, being on the side of the N73 (the main Mallow-Dublin road), and enjoying an excellent degree of road frontage.
There’s road frontage on three sides of it, which gives you superb access and makes it easy to work. I would even say that it probably gives you some site potential down the road too.
The farm is up for sale in its entirety, but the option of selling it in lots is there too, and the market will dictate which way it will go.
With the multiple access points that the farm has, there is a myriad of options of possible lots and there is no doubt that there will be no shortage of clients for the smaller portions.
However, one would imagine that the smart money will be on the property selling in its entirety.
The opportunity to acquire such a large amount of quality land that ticks so many boxes is one that is unlikely to passed up by those who are in that market.
It’s quite centrally located, with Cork city 45km to the south. The busy market town of Mallow is 15km away while the equally important market town of Mitchelstown is 20km. Kildorrery is 8km away.
In this part of the world, earlier in the year, another large holding sold by private treaty for a figure believed to be in the region of €17,000 per acre.
The price guide being currently quoted by the agents for the Wallstown farm is €2,800,000, or €14,000 per acre.
Given the location, quality and good access to this farm, is it not a somewhat conservative expectation?
Does Michael O’Donova expect that the final sale figure will be higher?
“We’d be hoping that it will,” says Michael. “We’d be hoping that it will achieve around the €3,000,000 mark.”
This area of North Cork is renowned for tillage farming but dairying also has a very strong presence, and it is the sector currently in ascendance.
According to Michael, the quality of the land is such that it would lend itself to any farming enterprise, and there is sure to be a good number of interested parties from the dairying sector with their eye on this rare jewel.
The elements are all in place for a very interesting result.
