Seaside launch at a good price point

Twenty new affordable homes are coming to the market at Drake’s Point in the harbour village of Crosshaven, writes Tommy Barker

Sat, 29 Sep, 2018 - 01:00

Twenty new affordable homes are coming to the market at Drake’s Point in the harbour village of Crosshaven, writes Tommy Barker

All the ‘ducks’ are lining up in Crosshaven’s Drake’s Point, with a release of up to 20 new-builds in this harbour village setting and where 55 sales have already taken place, with the scheme’s first residents in situ.

It’s a continuation of the early-2000s commenced Brightwater development, by O’Flynn Construction, which brought over 210 new homes to Crosshaven in the interim, and comprises a further 159 homes, after Drake’s Point got its planning grant early in 2017.

Called after the bucaneering 16th century English explorerer, Sir Francis Drake, who circumnavigated the globe, harried the Spanish and plundered their gold, before reportedly hiding from the pursuing Spanish Armada a mile up the Owenbue River estuary from Crosshaven and the wider harbour, Drake’s Point is also expected to find favour and sales from overseas, from returning Irish, who’ll appreciate the lifestyle on offer.

That profile — combined with first-time buyers (FTBs) and some traders — is likely, going on the evidence from the launch of a further phse of another O’Flynn Construction development Clonlara at Kerry Pike just north of Cork city, last weekend, where 17 of 22 new builds being released were booked.

New Homes director with Sherry FitzGerald Paul Hannon said of that 17, 13 were FTBs, and four were traders up and down, while he remarked there was a number of older buyers, parents, acting for adult children living abroad and planning to return to Ireland.

So, the Wild Geese, if not wild ducks and drakes, may also be among the buyers at Drake’s Point, with next weekend’s launch at the more affordable end of the price scale; the larger four-bed detacheds are likely to launch later on this year.

In terms of affordability, prices are barely up on levels from first launches last year and now start from €237,500 and that’s for two-bed terraced townhouses of 860 sq ft. (Early 2017 prices had started from €230,000, for smaller types, and the previous phase was priced from €235,000.) Three-bed end terrace townhouses of 983 sq ft are launching at €290,000, with a new showhouses for this type just completed (there are three showhouses done since last year) while four-bed semi detacheds are priced from €338,000 for 1,438 sq ft; previous launch prices of this type had been at €335,000.

The scheme’s 159 homes spans five different types; 60% are two and three-bed townhouses, 30% are four-bed semis and 10% are four-bed detacheds.

The Price Register shows one of these detacheds at €385,000, but that was minus the VAT, and the sale ticket price was €420,000, it’s understood. No prices are as yet decided for the next release of detacheds, and all are A3 rated, with completion of the current release due for Summer/Autumn 2019.

And, indicative of the scale and impact of Brightwater and Now Drakes’ Point on once-sleepy Crosshaven, the Register shows 266 sales of properties with a Crosshaven address since 2010: of that 266, 71 were in Brightwater, while 22 so far of the 55 sales to date at Drake’s Point have made the Register, meaning that by the end of this year, over half of all Crosshaven area sales may be accounted for by these twin/linked OFC developments.