All manor of good things

THERE was a time when you couldn’t buy a large, landed property in this country – there was so much competition.

Prices rocketed as we fell over ourselves buying country estates and the Irish buyer outdid the foreign investor for the first time in the country-home market.

Now, all’s changed, and the market for prestigious, country properties has hit bottom. It was one of the first markets to fall, as the high-end, luxury, status acquisitions acted like a weather vane for the approaching storm.

With this in mind, the 140-acre, High Park House Tipperary estate, near Cappawhite, offers the ‘full monty’ to the estate buyer, but at a much lower price than heretofore.

It has a continuously occupied, 18th century house at its heart, a stone-cut courtyard, a wide privacy belt of excellent Golden Vale land, and the mandatory, long and leafy driveway.

High Park House is on the market for offers in the region of €1.6m, through local auctioneer, Richard Crowe, about the price of a high-end suburban buy.

The property also comes with a SFP –– a single farm payment of €20,000 per annum, which, to the uninitiated, is basically free money from Brussels and which should go some way to defraying the mortgage expenses.

And while farm prices are depressed at the moment, there is the potential for High Park House to pay its way.

At the moment, it’s used for grazing, and, in the past, had been a dairy enterprise, but the productivity could be ramped up by a new owner, or converted to organic, and it comes with modern cattle sheds in good condition.

The location, too, is excellent, on the mainline rail to Dublin, but within a short commute of Limerick city, Tipperary town and the Shannon.

The main house was built in 1784 and is a stout, gentleman’s residence with plentiful accommodation in good condition.

Re-roofed in 2000, High Park House is surrounded by a shelter belt of ancient woodland, mature shrubberies and also has a walled in kitchen garden of just under an acre.

The residence comes with six bedrooms, a range of reception rooms, modern kitchen, a sun porch and three bathrooms.

There is secondary accommodation in the well-maintained, cut-stone courtyard, which also includes lofted coach houses, stables and stores.

High Park House is seven miles from Tipperary town, 15 miles from Cashel, 23 miles from Limerick city and Clonmel is 27 miles.

It has 130 acres of pastureland with the remainder, some 10 acres, in woodland, and, according to Richard Crowe, it has to be seen to be appreciated.