Dizzying price spiral continues in Kinsale with multiple €1m+ new builds

Munster town set to add to tally of most €1m+ property sales with offers coming to market in three new home schemes: the first, Belvedere formally launches this weekend

New Millionaires' Row: Front five homes at Belvedere are priced at €1.5m-€1.65 by agent James Murphy. Two others are €950,000 each. Pictures: Jakub Walutek

Kinsale, Cork
€870,000/€950,000/€1.5m/€1.65m
Size	169/230/256 sq m (1,825/2,189/2,758 sq ft) -
Bedrooms	3/4
Bathrooms	3/4
BER	A2

KINSALE is different — we all know that.

Apart from its heritage, physical beauty, seaside setting at the start of the Wild Atlantic Way, plethora of bars and top restaurants, one of the country’s most exclusive golf courses where players drop in by helicopters, and marinas for multi-million euro craft, Kinsale’s property market is also stand-out in terms of its property prices.

Front row seats....

The Price Register shows up to 50 €1m+ house sales since it first started showing sums expended on private homes, back to 2010, and million+deals were not uncommon locally here before that transparency either.

Main living/dining/kitchen

No other Munster location comes near Kinsale for such a volume of high-end homes…not even close.

Showhome: a €1.5m three-storey, three bed example

Top prices paid in the past few years seem to have jumped from the €2/€3 million league to €4-€5 million, and even over €5m.

There’s even a possibility that the coming year will see a new record set too, with a low-key strong offer on a new-build by Scilly, and several others deals agreed at as-yet unconfirmed sums.

Lower ground floor with games room/home cinema. There's also a home office or fourth bedroom option at ground level in the larger 'A' types

The end of 2023 should see some standout sums — now, will it also see the start of a steady stream of brand new builds set to come out of the traps that could see an even more marked increase in the amount of €1m+ plus sales the town can “boast” of?

Entry is at mid level

Like the old saying about waiting ages for a bus and then several come along together, well, those in the hunt for an A-rated modern home in Kinsale are going to be spoiled for choice as two different schemes of upper-end offers — Belvedere/Belvedere View with 13 homes on the westerns side of the town past Compass Hill, and Watersland on the Cork side of Kinsale with 11 homes — come to the autumn market.

Belvedere's water view

Between them, there will be two dozen houses primarily detached but with semi-detacheds also under the €1m price mark at the final finishing/show house stage in each competing development.

Top floor lofty bedroom. Design is by BRH Design Partnership

Watersland (which has had “teaser” ads in the Financial Times in recent months, due to feature here editorially shortly) will have seven detacheds, all likely to be over €1m, along with four semi-detacheds, in a mix of four and five bed homes, being sold by Sherry FitzGerald Brennan Busteed, while Belvedere is primarily large three-bed detacheds, with the option in the largest “A” type of a fourth bedroom in lieu of a home office.

Entry level ....for those with the funds

Five of these latter Belvedere homes are priced at over €1 million, and two just under it at €950,000, with a couple at €1.65m, the highest price of the two dozen of the new arrivals between the two competitor schemes.

Light and bright

One is already “sale agreed” at €1.5m at Belvedere (No 4), with local agent James Murphy of Kinsale Property on the selling case and who reports strong pre-launch interest.

Second generation in the construction sector in Ireland and overseas, and experienced in both residential and commercial sectors including office fit-outs, Mr McElhinney’s Dooneen Development previously completed the Springmount and Springmount Crescent Kinsale schemes of up to 80 homes (all sold) on the same hillside overlooking water above Commoge Marsh, near the Sáile Community Centre, Kinsale Community School and St Eltin’s NS, among other local family living amenities.

Easy living, nears schools, sports facilities,  services and the town itself

Outside Kinsale, Dooneen successfully complete the once-stalled Rowan Lane scheme of very large homes in Riverstick, a few miles out of Kinsale on the Cork road with a top sale there of €902,000.

High quality work by seasoned builder Sidney McElhinney

Now, on a sloping four-acre Kinsale town field bought from a local family, Springmount finishes out with the differently-titled, differently styled and largest homes of the lot, all over 2,000 sq ft at Belvedere, with five detacheds with the two book ending ones on the largest sites at €1.65m each, and the others in between at €1.5m.

Front five homes at Belvedere are priced at €1.5m-€1.65 by agent James Murphy. Two others are €950,000 each

Just behind/above is Belvedere View, with slightly smaller detacheds at either end, and with six semi-detacheds in between.

All are three-storey, entered at mid-level with lower level game room/home cinema, and plant room (the larger, A type has a home office/option fourth bedroom at this lower level).

They have mid-level living/kitchen/dining plus bright halls and stairwells with roof lights above, and all have three top floor bedrooms, with a large dressing room also in the A type.

Take the plunge?

Design and engineering is by BRH Design Partnership in Cork city, with construction by Dooneen’s own crew, with the three-storey house block built with concrete slab floors, underfloor with Daikin air to water heating/heat pumps (radiators at the top level), and come with oak joinery, one-off internal commissioned doors, fitted robes, fitted kitchen and utility with appliances, quality sanitary ware with a stand-alone bath in the main family bathroom. The A design has two en suite bedrooms, the D type has one en suite bedroom.

A showhouse has just been completed, with input from McCarthy Interiors, and the scene stealer, or scene setter, is the lower ground level family/games room (pic, left) with home cinema and home bar set up, complete with ceiling “night-sky” mood lighting and electrically closing black-out curtains: The place to watch the forthcoming Rugby World Cup, if you are quick off the mark?

VERDICT: Kinsale has never been stuck for buyers for houses at exceptionally strong price, among Munster’s very highest. Now, there’s a serious amount of new builds to prise open the pockets and wallets of the better-heeled...