TOP-END PROPERTY: Saving of €60k
With prices now well back in this limited market, the new stamp duty rates are going to have a more profound effect, because the savings are enormous the higher you go.
Blurred during the boom, (when average semis were sold for more), a million euro price tag is now a stable landmark from which luxury houses can set sail.
And with the changes in stamp duty, it’s this end of the market that will benefit most and while the 1% rate doubles over the million mark, it’s still way back on the previous 9% rate over that price point.
Take for instance, Knockmacool Lodge, a sublime Regency lodge between Bandon and Clonakilty in West Cork.
Floated on the market in mid-summer of 2010, this modern take on an old style had an incredible, B1 rating and 4,500 square feet of space with some three acres of land in a sheltered, mature spot off the main Cork road.
It has the quality of detail and clean Georgian details that buyers at this end of the market require, but as a new build, it combines the flavour of the old with the sustainability of an eco-house — the rating it achieved was reduced by single glazed windows and open fireplaces which were considered more appropriate to the house’s style than an A rating.
This property fits snugly into dream home category because it straddles two markets — the modern prêt-à-porter demand and the more tasteful, antique-buying strand.
Knockmacool is the ideal knock-off — a subtly-sized Regency lodge with imported detailing, such as the carved sandstone front door and old roof slates married with exposed dentils, lime-plastering and exquisitely fine window-beading.
And the interior is a hymn to fine artisan work — from the reproduction fireplaces, door cases and simple wrought stairs and balusters, while the kitchen treads a line between country and modern with a sensible Aga at its heart.
This is a house that’s massively proportioned, but not that you’d know. Built over two levels, it manages to combine three storeys over half levels in a property that appears at first sight to be single storey.
Approached via the almost mandatory long, gravel driveway and set against a backdrop of mature timber, this is a dream house and one that’s a carefree buy too. Now, it’s at least 60 grand cheaper and the asking price, contrary to trends, hasn’t been reduced. According to its selling agent, Pacelli Nolan, of Keane Mahony Smith, it was market-priced to begin with — and it’s worth it.
* €125,000 exempt
* €875,000 at 7% = €61,250
* €100,000 at 9% = €9,000
Total stamp duty payable before: €70,250
* €1,000,000 at 1% = €10,000
* €100,000 at 2% = €2,000
* Total stamp duty payable now: €12,000
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