Sale price of Chris de Burgh’s house drops 21% to €9.85m

Singer’s Enniskerry mansion first came to the market in 2019 seeking €12.5m

The asking price for singer Chris de Burgh’s Georgian mansion in Co Wicklow has dropped more than one-fifth to €9.85 million.

Bushey Park, an eight-bedroom country house on 27 acres about 1½km outside Enniskerry, has just been reduced by €2,650,000, or 21.2 per cent, from the €12.5 million it had been seeking since its launch almost three years ago, in June 2019. The selling agent is David Ashmore of Sotheby’s International Realty.

The main house is described in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as a “detached four-bay two-storey house . . . built in c1815 around the fabric of a former coaching inn”. The singer bought the 2,337sq m (25,685sq ft) house from the Bisgood family in 1996 and spent seven years refurbishing it; the works included new heating and insulation, a lift, a panic room and commissioning custom-made furniture, some of which could be available to purchase.

There’s also a guest cottage, restored stables and a new leisure complex with a screening room, games room and indoor pool. The grounds include a tennis court and a walled garden.

READ MORE

De Burgh and his wife, Diane, live at Bushey Park; their three adult children including Rosanna Davison, nutritionist and former Miss World, have left home. At the time the house was put on the market, de Burgh said: “There’s no financial need. I don’t have to sell this place. I just think it’s too big for two people.”

Other houses currently on the market in this multimillion price bracket include Ananda, a seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom house on St George’s Avenue, Killiney, for sale through joint agents Vincent Finnegan and Knight Frank for €10 million.

Also in south Dublin, Summerhill House on Marino Avenue West, Killiney, a seven-bed, six-bath 701sq m house, is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald for €8.9 million.

And in Dalkey, the same agent is selling Nerano House on Nerano Road, a four-bed, four-bath 384sq m house, for €7.25m; and Sorrento, also on Nerano Road, a six-bed, six-bath 520sq m house for €7.2 million.

Outside Dublin, Sherry FitzGerald is selling Ballindoolin House in Carbury, Co Kildare, a seven-bed, seven-bath 1,106sq m house, for €9.25 million and is joint agent with Christie’s on Kilmurry House, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, an 11-bed, eight-bath 1,659sq m house for €8.8 million.

In Co Tipperary, Colliers and Sotheby’s International are joint sales agents for the Sopwell Hall estate at Ballingarry for €8.5 million.

Joyce Hickey

Joyce Hickey

Joyce Hickey is an Irish Times journalist