Much to play for in Mallow land facing greenbelt zoning

Ballyviniter lands for sale Mallow 130 acres, €2.1 million guide private treaty

ZONING changes, and long-term development strategies on lands on the edge of Cork’s Mallow — which bills itself as the Crossroads of Munster — into the future will play a factor into the bidding and activity on 130 acres now publicly on the market, with a €2.1m guide price.

Being sold by agents Savills for Grant Thornton is what is now described as a ‘greenfield holding,’ despite the fact that almost half of the 130 acres — some 62 acres — has current zoning for medium-density residential development.

However, that current status is due for a dezoning/rezoning to ‘Greenbelt’, according to a draft of the Cork County Development Plan 2022.

“This has obviously had a major impact on the value of the land,” admits surveyor James O’Donovan of Savills. However, he adds that “potential purchasers may be keen to take a long-term view on the land, as it is quite possible that, given the location and zoning history, that there’s an opportunity to have a portion if not all of the land rezoned for residential purposes in the future.”

This Ballyviniter land bank, in a patchwork of farm fields with road frontage, adjoins the Clonmore house development which has been restarted by O’Flynn Construction with 80/90 units coming on stream post-2020, at prices from the mid-€200,000s. Clonmore is one of several new homes schemes now gearing up for Mallow after a protracted post-crash hiatus when very little new stock was delivered.

Also active at nearby Hazel Brook, by Spa Glen Mallow, have been Hallmark Developments, and Donal Relihan’s Vella Homes, with Clearstone.

This Ballyviniter land, all in grass and agricultural use, has a price equivalent to €16,000 per acre for its 130-acre total, so is priced well short of development land values, and at the upper end of agricultural values. It’s being offered by way of private treaty.

It’s in a north east quadrant on the edge of Mallow’s urban settlement, along N72, the main Mallow to Fermoy route following the direction of the River Blackwater and has frontage and access to a number of local access roads, says Mr O’Donovan.

He points out that it has close proximity of good infrastructural road networks to include the N20 and the N72. “The land is situated in an area of Mallow that has and will see some major development,” he notes.

This 130-acre landholding, made up of a number of smaller parcels, is generally level, with mature trees and hedgerows. Interest can be expected from local developers and builders, as well as more national players, and from those who would buy and hope for a future zoning uplift, given the ambitious housing targets in the Government’s Housing for All strategy and targets for 300,000 new homes nationally by 2030, and use as agricultural land in the interim.