Thinking outside the box

THE real beneficiaries of rampant house price inflation in this country are the internationally-mobile, those able to capitalise on their Irish property nest eggs and move to nest abroad.

Those of us destined to continue living and working see risen (and still-rising) Irish property values as a moot advantage if you sell and reap the gains of a purchase of even a few years ago, you still have to buy back into a strong market.

Some Irish people have however sold up, made a property killing and moved for lifestyle reasons to other countries or continents: a Dublin 4 terraced home might buy a small chateau and vineyard in the remoter regions of France.

Irish coastal properties were in vogue among continental buyers from the 1960s, and even hippies who bought into the hills decades ago for peanuts have become cash-rich beneficiaries of the boom as a result.

Far from the hippy trail, among the more recent arrivals to Irish shores, and leaving again after less than a decade in situ, are international musicians Maya Homburger and Barry Guy, who threw much of their excess creative energies into a Co Kilkenny barn building.

The truly spectacular home has over 4,000 sq ft of bespoke oak-hewed space and wouldn't look out of place on the TV show Grand Designs.

In fact, this place has already appeared on TV programmes and Irish and oversea interiors magazines and was designed by UK-based Roderick James Architects with a specialist oak frame provided from Carpenter Oak & Woodland, also in the UK, with local craftsmen filling in the pieces and delivering the finished result.

This barn, adapted out of the ruins of old stone farmhouse dwellings which had been derelict and roofless for up to 60 years, cost over 1 million to build and realise, and now has a 2 million price guide quoted by joint agents Jackson Stops and MSW Immobilien, the latter picking up on the anticipated overseas demand.

The vendors clearly didn't build this speculatively for a fast profit, they immersed themselves in it as a life project: the reason now for a sale is their international touring schedule, which means they are relocating to Switzerland.

The barn has been used for recitals and composition and is a bright, creative place to live and play in.

Location is on 30 exceptionally private acres of land, down a long boreen, in a quiet corner of Kilkenny near Thomastown.

Superlatives apply to its construction and character, and while it is very much a niche buy, its vendors deserve every euro it will eventually make as a legacy and their international contribution to the Irish landscape.