Foreign buyers return

John Daly of Sherry Fitzgerald Daly in Kenmare at the southern end of the county states that “People tend to choose the area first and then try to find the property that will fit in.”

It’s a small town on the Ring of Kerry but one which has a lively atmosphere without ever stretching itself to what you might call ‘hectic’. Its traditional property market is made up of a high proportion of overseas buyers.

“As regards enquiries and deals being done, the last six months have been probably been the best in the last three years,” says Daly. “Our buyers have been Dutch, Italian, and our usual sprinkling of American and British people – they’re always strong for our area. It’s all been relatively positive.”

Most of the foreign buyers in the Kenmare area, according to Daly, tend to be those looking for the sweet life – people looking for a holiday home with a view to occupying it full-time when retirement time comes.

Prices, he says, are in line with values going back to the early 2000s, but vendors have been accepting the new reality and buyers appear to be increasing as word spreads of how attractive prices have become in a place that the US Forbes magazine once listed as one of the best retirement locations in the world.

“Foreign buyers seemed to have been frightened off over the last few years with all the talk of doom and gloom,” he says, “but now they’re seeing the value that is there and they’re coming back and most of them would be buying with cash.”