At home in property biz

OONAGH O’Driscoll was lucky — if she had sold the entire block of Balmace Crescent, Fermoy, during the boom, she would have borrowed more millions to develop further.

She had only built two of eight planned houses in the low-density, Balmace scheme before the recession. It’s unusual for a woman to be a developer and O’Driscoll happened upon the business by accident.

With a background in marketing, she and her husband worked in the UK and intended staying there. They had found the ideal house, had made an offer, and were in the process of selling their own.