Kenmare four-bed for €925,000 is back on the market after just a year

One of just four large luxurious detached properties which back on to Oakwood Manor

The current guide of €925,000 now makes it the most expensive property on the market within the town.

Kenmare, Co Kerry
€925,000
Size	257 sq m (2,780 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	5
BER	B3

Underbidders who missed out on purchasing one of Kenmare town’s most luxurious properties at No 41 Oakwood Manor last year are now, most unexpectedly, being offered a second bite of the cherry.

The detached property overlooking the golf course was snapped up for €910,000 within a few weeks last July by a house-hunting American couple who, for work reasons, are now returning to South Carolina whence they came.

The price paid for it was the highest one paid for a property within the town boundary last year and the current guide of €925,000 now makes it the most expensive property on the market within the town.

One of just four large luxurious detached properties which back on to the golf course at the rear of Oakwood Manor development, it sold back in ‘the boom’ for in excess of €1 million, and was originally a showhouse.

Elaine Daly of Sherry Fitzgerald Daly, who is selling this property for the third time, says the last four houses in Oakwood Manor are the pick of the crop — in terms of sites, size and standard of finish and design and that the interest level in No 41 is at a level not seen since ‘the boom.’

Last July, it went sale agreed two to three weeks after she had shown it to just eight or nine viewers. “We are already seeing an even higher level of interest in it this year — a lot of the viewers are Irish while others are planning to travel from overseas — all looking for a permanent home.” For the current owners who completed the purchase of the house in November and moved over with their three children in January, it was the standard of the house and its proximity to services in Kenmare that made them choose it.

An elegantly decorated 257 sq m property with four bedrooms, five bathrooms and impeccably landscaped gardens, it’s located in a gated row of houses situated within 1.5km from shops, schools and amenities in the town centre.

“We chose Ireland because my husband loves it and has been coming here for years and we chose Kenmare because of the house,” says the lady of the house explaining that her husband’s job in the healthcare industry involved a relocation to Europe.

They looked in Dublin, along the coast, in West Cork and in Killarney before they found Oakwood Manor. “Modern, spacious, very private and beautifully scenic with views of the golf course as well as being close to schools — it was perfect.” Since moving in, they made a few minor changes to the house which had originally been decorated by interior designers. “We replaced carpets with timber flooring and removed wallpaper and painted the walls,” reveals the owner, explaining that the painters had hardly left in July this year when her husband got a job offer he couldn’t turn down back in South Carolina.

The accommodation is all you could expect from a high-end property in this price range. The open-plan kitchen/dining/living room is spacious and stylish with bespoke cream units, granite worktops, high-quality appliances and a breakfast bar and also includes a wine fridge, mood lighting and a sound system. The living section which has a fireplace with a wood burning stove is located at the front of the house where there is also a separate sitting room with a bay window.

It’s a sign of changed times since the property was constructed in the boom that the sunroom which overlooks the gardens and the golf course at the rear, has now been turned into a home office.

The ground floor also has a guest WC and a well-equipped utility room with the controls beam central vacuum system — a feature that was very popular in the boom decade.

The upper floor has four spacious timber floored en suite bedrooms: Three of the en suites have quadrant-power showers with quartz vanity units while the master bedroom also has a stand-alone bath.

In the neatly kept gardens there is a spacious paved parking area with shrub-filled beds at the front and a patio area at the side which has one section for dining alfresco and another, alongside a stone fireplace, for lounging. Alongside the patio, which overlooks the eighth green of Kenmare Golf Club, is a lawned garden enclosed by hedging.

Immediately behind the property’s garden is a communal green area which separates the property from the golf course — so there is no danger of stray golf balls coming through.

Situated at the back of the Oakwood Manor — No 41 is one of nine houses in a gated section — which includes five slightly smaller detached houses on the opposite side.

Three of the four extra-large detached houses which back on to the golf course, (including this one) have come on the market in the last three years and the prices paid for them show just how significant the Kenmare property market recovery has been.

While the €910,000 paid for No 41 was the highest price paid for an Orchard Manor house since the boom, No 44 and identical house type three doors away made €862,000 in December 2021. In April 2022 the house next door No 42 sold for €730,000, four years after it had been bought for €477,500.

Back in 2017, No 43 sold for €485,000 having been beautifully fitted out by owners who bought it with a builders finish for just €300,000 in 2013. And when Elaine Daly sold this one at No 41 for the first time in 2014, it went for €465,000.

In recent times No 39 Oakwood Manor a four-bed 185 sq ft detached property across from this one, has gone sale agreed for €635,000, well above its €595,000 guide.

Ms Daly says the fact Kenmare has in recent years been cited as one of the most beautiful towns and the top places to retire to globally has given the property market an appreciable boost.

VERDICT: A cherry pick.