Strong demand for major city properties

REMEMBER the Celtic Tiger? It hasn’t totally gone away, you know.

New home lairs for the south's affluent classes are still in hot demand witness the last of 15 sites just sold for up to €400,000 alongside an exclusive Cork city hotel, and proven demand for spectacular single house sites in the second city for up to €1.5 million.

The last few quarter acre sites in the former walled orchard of Maryborough House Hotel in Douglas have been snapped up for €380,000 to €400,000 a pop, for homes likely to average 3,000 sq ft.

Completed houses here will be worth on average from €800,000 to €1 million.

However, the very first house built in here by pharmaceuticals MD Reg Shaw on the very largest site is likely to have cost €3 to €4 million to complete, with about 6,000 sq ft of living space.

Hotel owner Dan O'Sullivan, who invested millions of euro in the Maryborough House Hotel venture seven years ago, sold off the sites. Depite a slow sales mid-period there was a flurry of activity for the last few sites. Nine of the site sales were handled by Dennis Guerin of Frank V Murphy & Co auctioneers, who observed "there's no let-up in demand for sites for exclusive homes."

He is well-placed to gauge the demand at this level and above: last month, he sold a modest bungalow on 1.3 acres in Bishopstown for €1.5 million, which the buyer will seek to knock and replace with one super-large private home.

Across the city, the same firm has a five acre development site in Woodhill in Tivoli, currently close to €2 million in offers from a developer, but a private buyer was there in bids up to €1.7 million for a single private home.

Buyers of the Maryborough House Hotel sites are typically Cork families trading up, according to Mr Guerin, with suburban homes in the €400,000 to €600,000 price category to sell.

Two houses here are already built and occupied, four or five are now at an early construction level, and when complete the niche, almost compound, scheme will have electronic access gates, old walled surrounds, and private communal access to a wooded area between the orchard and Maryborough Hill.