Contemporary, coastal Connemara home by the Coral Strand for €1.1m

If there is one house that will test the current trend for coastal properties, it will be this three-bedroom property near Coral Strand in Ballyconneely, Connemara. Prices for coastal homes have surged in the wake of the pandemic and are now up an estimated 23 per cent on pre-Covid values.

With more people working from home, some properties with a sea view and the benefit of sea air are selling in a matter of weeks. At is stands, this appears to be the second most expensive house on the market in Connemara, with Water’s Edge, a bungalow in Barna taking first place in the €1 million-plus price bracket. Both have bullish asking prices, and no doubt estate agents and those with waterside houses will be keeping an eye to see if these prices are achieved.

Water's Edge is seeking €1.2 million through O'Donnellan and Joyce and this house, designed by architect David O'Malley in Castlebar, is seeking €1.1 million. Also for sale up the coast from this property is High Island, an 80-acre private island with a 1,000-year-old monastery and the earliest surviving monastic mill in Europe which is being sold as a site, and listed at €1.25 million through Spencer Auctioneers.

Interiors of this three-bedroom house, Derrigimlagh, extending to 227sq m (2,443sq ft) were designed by Galway-based Venezuelan architect Juan Sotoparra and the gardens, extending to 1.6 acres, were designed by award-winning Radharc Landscaping in Moycullen.

Built just over a decade ago, the property, which has a BER of C1, is about a mile from Keogh’s hostelry at the crossroads in Ballyconneely along a stretch of shoreline known locally as the Golden Mile at Coral Strand. “It’s a real house for entertaining,” says the owner, who has used it as a holiday home but is “selling up to spend more time in Dublin”.

Besides its lovely interiors with vaulted ceilings and landscaped gardens, this light-filled house has a beach across the road at the end of its driveway, and an all-important right of way to access the sea to launch a boat. The property itself has been launched on the market by DNG Maxwell Heaslip and Leonard, seeking €1.1 million.