How to save €850k? Kinsale's Ballinacurra House gets a price drop to €5.5m

Second selling agent and a drop in asking price may get sale of Kinsale estate over the line

Sat, 22 Apr, 2023 - 12:44

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports

Kinsale, Cork
€5.5 million (down €835,000)
Size	1,709 sq m (18,395 sq ft)
Bedrooms	14
Bathrooms	14
BER	Exempt

WITH Kinsale topping Munster’s property hot-spot list after a year of record-making deals in 2022 and early ‘23, there’s a fresh sales push behind the Georgian home and hospitality venue, Ballinacurra House, with a price drop to whet fresh appetites, and new alternative uses posited.

Ballinacurra House is upriver of Kinsale harbour and town

With the appointment of a joint selling agent Johanna Murphy, coming on board with Guy Craigie of Knight Frank there’s a chunky price drop from the €6.35m it carried since its 2021 market launch, to now stand at a revised €5.5m.

That €850,000 ‘saving’ would go quite a long way in any other house purchase, even in Kinsale where €4-€5million+ sales for private homes set the place apart.

The latest to approach the €5m mark was Ocean Breeze in Kinsale’s Scilly, to Nike heir and movie maker Travis Knight, married to Laois woman Maryse Fitzpatrick, who’ll use the €4.5m+ buy as a part-time Irish home.

Even at that elevated sum, Ocean Breeze is ‘only’ the third-most expensive Kinsale, trailing the €4.75m for the waterfront Scilly period home Raffeen House, and the €5m+ swoop on hilltop Constantia Farm last year where that modern home’s buyer more recently added some zoned land to not control 30 acres at an outlay of up to €10m.

Both Ocean Breeze and Ballinacurra House have featured on RTÉ’S Selling Ireland’s Dream Homes, and having sold Ocean Breeze after that TV exposure estate agent Ms Murphy is aiming for the double with the 18,000 sq ft Ballincurra House mix. It has 14 bedrooms across several houses including the 1770s Georgian original at its centre, along with 20 aces of private grounds, and direct water access to a tidal creek under small bridge to the River Bandon a few miles upriver of Kinsale.

Its privacy has been a boon to owner Des and Lisa McGahan who’ve run it as an exclusive retreat.

Johanna Murphy says simply that “properties like this do not come on the market that often and especially of this calibre and location. International buyers are flocking to Ireland to own a piece of our heritage, our culture. As a country we have become so attractive for the overseas buyer and the Irish returning home. What makes this property so attractive is that it has a residential and commercial use, hence is so versatile.”

Commercially, it could be a retirement village, spa or health retreat like the Priory, and the vendors did some pre-planning inquiries on adding additional lodges, pre global pandemic, before deciding to sell in 2021.

“The first thing I thought of when I saw it was that, it has endless opportunities such as a boutique bespoke country and coastal hotel with lodges on sites just like Waterford Castle and Mount Juliet hotel or even a Ballymaloe-style venue,” says Ms Murphy.

Location is within a five minute drive of Kinsale, which gets an international aura and sheen from high-flying visitors thanks to the likes of the Old Head of Kinsale Golf Course and its multiple daily helicopter landings.

Pitching at it that sort of high-net worth elite, the newly-appointed joint agent Johanna Murphy says “this 250 years old property, rich in history could be your home. You have staff accommodation, guest accommodation, historic gardens, woodland, river access complete with jetty – one could be self-sufficient with a sustainable property where you could eat, sleep and eat.”

Having already had a number of viewings prior to this week’s price drop, Knight Frank’s Guy Craigie adds that “Ballinacurra is a property that needs to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. It has the most beautiful grounds that offer a real sense of seclusion and calm yet it is just minutes from the centre of Kinsale and less than a 25 minute drive to Cork International Airport."