Cor, Jim’s living next door

MUSICIAN Jim Corr, he of the lovely singing sisters, sometimes uses a helicopter to fly in and out of his private home in Leinster Wood, the requisite residential section of the Carton House Demesne.

Unlike some golf/hotel resorts (such as Fota) there were no planning restrictions here confining ownership to holiday lets. Nor was it tax incentivised. Partly as a result, and partly because of proximity to Dublin and the M50, buyers in the main turned out to be young families, albeit fairly wellheeled professionals. There are already over 100 children in residence in the development of 118 homes, with 102 units sold.

House design was by Murray O’Laoire. There is a strong Scandinavia influence, with lots of wood used and many of the buyers went for the option of basements as well. House types include 2,000 sq ft two-storey semis from €700,000, 2,750 sq ft four-bed dormers from €980,000, three-storey six-beds of 3,800 sq ft from €1.5m, says Susan Kirk of Coonan Estate Agents, acting jointly with Savills.

Wildly missing the timing that graced the main launches, the latest product is The FitzGerald, a deep-eaved two-storey L-shaped design of 5,000 sq ft (plus 1,600 sq ft of decked balconies, outdoor hot tubs, etc) with a showhouse kitted out to suit the most extravagant of professional footballer and WAG tastes (shoe rack for up to 50 pairs of stilettos or studded boots).

These rangy US-style houses, separately accessed, are on large golf course-set sites set in woodland. While two main residential floors have it all, the show unit’s basement has games room, gym, media room/home cinema, sauna, steam showers, bar and more.

You could sit out a recession, or a relegation, quite nicely down here and not know what was going on in the wider world.

Prices are from €2 million and there are/were plans to build even larger houses of 7,500 sq ft, POA, built to order.