Luxury new homes on Howth Road sell out in three hours

A development of 16 luxury homes in Raheny, Dublin 5, launched at 3pm on Thursdayyesterday sold out completely by 6pm, making it the fastest new-homes sell-out this year. The four- and five-bedroom houses, priced from €660,000 to €900,000, were built by northside developers MKN Property Group, who were also responsible for last year's luxury Seascape scheme in Clontarf.

Lonsdale, at 726-728 Howth Road had been firmly targeted at the higher end of the market, specifically to families trading up or down from larger homes in the area. The scheme launched to the market on Thursday with media advertising and an open viewing at 3pm, and plans for further viewings on Friday and Saturday.

According to selling agent, Conor Gallagher of Gallagher Quigley, the viewings will still go ahead as a cancellation list is in operation, and as a means of introducing potential buyers to MKN’s homes, because they have further schemes planned in the area. Deposits have been received for all 16 properties at Lonsdale.

Pre–launch list

The selling agents had operated a pre–launch list of about 25 interested buyers who had already identified houses in the scheme in which they were interested. These parties were given a walk-through of the properties on Monday and Tuesday and yesterday about 50 parties showed up for the public launch.

“This was a different scenario to the frenzy of a first–time buyer scheme. There was no queuing, no rush when the doors opened. All of the buyers could afford to buy these homes without having to sell first.”

For MKN it is a very healthy return on a site they purchased for around €3.4 million in two phases between 2007 and 2014. Yesterday’s launch grossed about €12 million for the developers.

The lightning-quick sale is indicative of the dire shortage of housing stock at every level of the market, and it follows closely on the heels of the near sell-out of the Cosgrave-built Hanover Loft apartments scheme in the docklands last weekend, where 12 out of 15 apartments (starting at €415,000 for a one-bed) sold at launch.

In February a luxury southside scheme, Knockrabo in Goatstown, sold 23 homes averaging about €900,000 per unit within three days, netting about €20 million for developers Whelan.