Castleknock offered at €2.5m

Dublin’s profit-making Castleknock Golf Course, on 125 acres by the capital, is being sold with a €2.5m price tag.

That’s just twice what golfer Rory McIlroy pocketed with his weekend British Open win: the Irish golfer’s prize pot was increased by £975,000, or about €1.23m, and his worth before that win had already propelled him into tens of millions of euro, enough to buy numerous golf clubs, in all four provinces.

Key to any buyer’s interest at Castleknock, with bar and restaurant, is the fact is profitable, stresses Marcus Magnier of Colliers, who last year sold the Fota Golf Resort for €25m to Chinese buyers, the Kangs. “It is expected that the turnover will be reaching €2m in 2014, showing an IBIDTA of over 10%,” he notes of this receivership sale of a club in a wealthy Dublin suburb 20 minutes from the city centre, and with a quite unique membership structure. Since 2011, a membership structure was put in place working on a debit card system: cash gets deducted off an account whenever a member plays golf, spends in the pro shop or in the clubhouse. (Green fees fell from €90 a round in 2007 to €30 on weekdays, and €45 on weekends by 2014, Colliers’ e-brochure shows, but annual golf rounds have as a result increased annually since 2010, and stood at 38,000 in 2013.)