€3m sought for 54 acres with 'hope value'
The 54-acre farm on the outskirts of Cork City.
To paraphrase the words of Reggie of the Blackrock Road, there is a right and a wrong side to Rochestown. Just to the south of this well-to-do Cork city suburb lies some of Munster’s finest farmland - and a considerable chunk of it has just come up for sale.
When a land parcel close to Cork city centre makes a rare appearance on the agricultural land market, one can expect something of a clamour; with hope value adding significantly to its agricultural value.
The 54-acre farm in Rochestown is new to the market with Cork city auctioneers Frank V. Murphy. According to the selling agents, it’s a top-quality holding with a mixture of arable land and pasture. There is also a good collection of farm buildings, including general-purpose outbuildings, an open silo and a silage pit.
The property is located off the main Rochestown Road, 3.5km from Douglas Village and just under 6.5km from Cork City centre. The lands are located within Cork city boundaries but in an area zoned as greenbelt.
This means that in theory, this is a holding of purely agricultural value. In practice, however, there is a degree of hope value – the hope being that at some future point, the city will expand to include this piece of land.
That hope value has already translated into high prices being paid for land tracts on the city’s edge. Sales of land in similar locations in the last year or so have gone above €50,000 per acre and the price guide in this case is also a reflection of hope value at €50,000/€60,000 per acre.
“It’s very good land,” said selling agent Dennis Guerin. “There’s no waste, but it’s most likely going to be purchased by an investor who will let it in the meantime, knowing that at some point, there will be a significant uplift in its value.”
A significant uplift in value is what would happen were there to be zoning for housing development on this fine agricultural land and certain people are hoping that that will happen sooner rather than later.
