Putting the money in Cork’s set-to-mushroom Moneygourney

Ex-Rockforest site offered as Murnane & O'Shea lodge for 580 unit LRD nearby in outer Douglas

Thu, 01 Feb, 2024 - 00:00

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports

AS plans lodged this week for a mammoth c €200m development in Cork’s Moneygourney by developers Murnane & O’Shea (MO’S), for a mix of 263 houses and 317 apartments over a 10-year large-scale development, time is ticking on a planning grant on a valuable site up for grabs for higher-end family homes in Cork’s outer Douglas and Rochestown area.

Foxwarren, outer Douglas/Rochestown. Pic: Larry Cummins

However, that ticking clock is not likely to dissuade a new developer/builder as it comes up for sale.

Just listed with a €2.45m price guide is the chance to finish out, and/or amend an existing part-developed scheme also at Moneygourney called Foxwarren of 33 houses, where prices for the first 10 — all now completed, sold and occupied since 2019 — ranged from €650,000 to €830,000.

Remaining site of over six acres. Pic: Larry Cummins

Foxwarren’s Moneygourney location is close to Garryduff and Rochestown, 500 metres from where six detacheds in a niche scheme called Woodside sold last year at prices from €740,000 to €820,000.

The wider Moneygourney area is where MO’S just this week revealed plans for a 580-unit development, to be accessed from Carr’s Hill/Carrigaline Road via a new bridge as the M28 route unfurls. MO’S also propose a link to the Ballybrack Valley pedestrian and cycle path for their decade-long development proposal, almost at a size on par with Mount Oval Village and Maryborough Woods in the wider Douglas catchment.

Meanwhile, the more niche 33-house Foxwarren was started with high hopes by developer David Walsh of Rockforest in a joint scheme with Into the Future Homes in 2017. However, other builders subsequently stepped in on site to complete the last of the first 10 Foxwarren detacheds.

Mr Walsh is currently back building in Cork’s Waterfall at scale, and in settled ‘old’ suburban Hettyfield, Douglas, where semi-ds are making from €810,000 to detacheds at close to €960,000.

Hettyfield Gardens Douglas under construction, with most houses already sold

Now, the chance to start again, with a clean slate to develop the remaining 23 units at the Rockforest-initiated Foxwarren — or, more likely to go for a change of plans and higher density — comes to market with agent James O’Donovan of , comprising some 6.17 acre (2.57ha) on the undeveloped section.

“Mention Foxwarren and all local developers as well as some national developers will know exactly the site in question. Many will have looked at the site when it first became available close to 10 years ago and many will have been keeping a close eye on it since works ceased on site a couple of years back,” says Mr O’Donovan.

Foxwarren is now available via agents Savills, offering the prime site with a guide price of €2.45m.

Foxwarren has 10 already compelted and occupied homes

The planning grant for the remaining 23 of the 33 homes at Foxwarren expires this June, thus Mr O’Donovan suggests that “it’s likely that an incoming developer will have to apply for a new planning. This could potentially give them the opportunity to increase the density beyond the 23 houses currently permitted.”

Given the location, previous prices paid at Foxwarren (and Woodside), and prices for detached new-builds in other Cork locations such as Hettyfield, Orchard Road, and Model Farm Road, Mr O’Donovan notes the last Foxwarren houses were released in 2020 at prices up to €850,000 “and given the upward trend of the new homes market the next phase of Foxwarren could achieve in excess of that”.

He said: “We expect strong demand from local developers, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see national demand such is the attraction of Douglas and Moneygourney.”

Mr O’Donovan added: “The key factors driving the demand will be the location, the proven demand for houses in this area, and the strong prices they achieve.”

At the €2.45m guide, and the current grant for 23 homes, the site sale shows a value put just over €100,000 per stand: Whether the density goes up, or down, will be up to its purchaser.

DETAILS: Savills 021 4271371