Homes worth €2.73m are snapped up at derelict site

Residential property sales totalling €2.73m in a ghost estate were snapped up in just 10 days.

There were queues of people waiting to purchase new bargain homes in the Killaloe site, Ard na Deirge.

The interest flowed 16 months after homeowners, locked out of their new properties on the shore of Lough Derg, had staged a protest about the delay in taking up occupancy.

However, John Walsh of Limerick-based Cherry Fox Developments confirmed eight four-bedroom detached dwellings sold for €160,000 each while 10 three-bedroom semi-detached dwellings made €145,000 each.

The same houses were on the market for €375,000 and €300,000 at the height of the Celtic Tiger in 2007. There had been no shortage of buyers at the time, but most pulled out after seeing the development work drag on for years.

Having transformed the derelict site since it was taken over by Cherry Fox Developments a few months ago, Mr Walsh said there was a now great demand.

In fact, he said, there are currently 10 prospective purchasers on a waiting list in the event that one of the sales for the 18 houses did not materialise.

He hopes to get the homeowners who were locked out of their homes for the last eight years — Michele Burke and William Buck, John Ryan senior and John Ryan junior — into their dwellings by the end of this month.

He said that he will concentrate on getting the other 18 property owners into their homes as quickly as possible in September.

Ms Burke, excited by the prospect of finally moving in with husband William Buck after an almost eight-year wait, recalled there had been three or four people queuing to buy one house in the estate.

The couple were spending almost €1,400 a month on rent and a mortgage for over four years, in spite of securing full title deeds from the Land Registry Office for the dwelling.

They had paid a booking deposit on a house at Ard na Deirge in September 2006 and were about to take up residence in December 2009 when a receiver from KPMG was appointed by AIB.

The couple were joined in a “development limbo” with the Ryans who were also unable to take up residence in two other nearby dwellings, in spite of obtaining full title deeds.