Knockdown bid to push sales in village scheme

WHOLESALE demolition of unfinished and unsellable houses in unpopular locations might be on the cards post-NAMA — but, in advance of that, a west Cork builder has done his own, small-scale pulldown of partially-built houses.

Three partially-built detached houses in the 44-unit Pairc na Fana scheme in Union Hall have been demolished by builder Darren Hourihane in the past few weeks, and he’s landscaped around their bases with hedging to camouflage their remains.

It is, the site’s developers say, a pragmatic response to current market conditions, and they’ve done it to improve the look of the site for those already living there, as well as to clean it up for those thinking of buying the other remaining houses. In tandem, prices have been brought down considerably to prompt summer sales.

“We’re proud of the scheme, we’ve no borrowings on the site and as we make a sale we invest again,” said Mr Hourihane. “We’d spent maybe €20,000 on the walls so far on these three, one was up to wall plate level, another to window sill level and the third barely started. “We’d have had to spend €400,000 more to get them looking right and to clean up that portion of the site, so we decided to take them back down.”

According to auctioneer Pat Maguire, more than 20 of the houses in the pretty village’s hillside scheme have been sold and are lived in, either owner-occupied or rented. There are nine left to sell, and prices are well-adjusted to encourage buyers, with a couple of more sales in the offing, according to Mr Maguire.

He confirmed that the walls of the detached houses Nos 28, 30 and 32 have been taken down recently rather than have them blight the site. “The blockwork was getting stale-looking, and that’s not ideal either for those living there having to look at them, or for other sales when your are showing people around the site. It is just three out of 44 units in all,” said Mr Maguire.

There are around ten more completed houses, and work is continuing on site on six bungalows, while Pairc na Fana prices have been markedly reduced from launch levels of three years ago.

Back in April 2007, Castle Development (made up primarily of Don Teegan and John Connolly) launched show units in the high-quality scheme with more than a dozen sales already secured, and at strong, peak-of-market prices: they ranged from €375,000 for a two-bedroom 950 sq ft townhouse through three-beds (semis and townhouses) of 1,290 sq ft at €440,000/€450,000/€480,000. The top four-bedroom detached homes of 1,927 sq ft were up around €680,000.

Prices were on a par with areas like Schull. Now, remaining two-beds have dropped from €375,000 to €230,000, and 1,300 sq ft three-beds are down to €280,000 from their mid-€400k peaks.

There’s also a fully-furnished detached three-bedroom showhouse, with three bathrooms and 1,700 sq ft of space guiding at €450,000 via Pat Maguire. Prices for the six bungalows currently being construction haven’t yet been fixed.