An exclusive resort where properties once fetched €250,000

Within easy reach of Dublin, Ballinacarrig was attractive to a wealthy urban elite

WITH MORE than 80 acres of parkland, tennis courts, a golf course and a private beach, Ballinacarrig Holiday Park is as exclusive as it gets when it comes to Irish holiday resorts.

The properties on the park are just mobile homes, but at the height of the boom they commanded prices of €250,000, as Dublin’s professional classes scrambled to join one of the Republic’s most elite clubs within easy reach of the capital.

Along with Jack’s Hole nearby, Ballinacarrig was particularly attractive to high net-worth individuals who could afford the cash – banks don’t generally provide mortgages for mobile homes – to buy into the club. Professionals with young families move to the area for the summer months, commuting to Dublin during the week.

Business people, lawyers and bankers account for a large number of the 176 owners in the park, where properties were generally traded discreetly among colleagues rather than on the open market.

Members include solicitor Noel Smyth and businessman Maurice Pratt. Financier Dermot Desmond once owned a mobile home here but sold over a decade ago, while other names linked to Ballinacarrig over the years include businessman Jim Flavin, the Cosgrave family of property developers and bookseller Fred Hanna.

Annual fees at the park stand at about €10,000 – €7,500 in rent and the rest in management charges – but during the boom even these hefty charges failed to detract from its popularity. Owners could count on selling their homes once their families had grown up at a big premium, thus recouping their outlay.

Not so now, when many owners are feeling the general economic pain, paying more tax and property values have slumped.

About 30 homes in the park are for sale, at prices ranging from €90,000 and €250,000, but there are few takers.

The land is owned by 73-year-old Malachy Stone, whose family has been here for more than 200 years.

He established the park in the early 1980s and has been through an earlier round of wrangling with the residents a decade ago.

That resulted in the residents being given 35-year leases. But some of the other conditions agreed at the time, such as the rent reviews and the bank guarantee, are now coming back to haunt them. The group of owners also established a complex company structure to maximise tax efficiency, and this is also proving problematic.

Under the arrangements members have joint liability for rents, so that if some are unable or unwilling to pay, the shortfall must be made up by their neighbours.

Those agreeing to sign up for a new lease have been informed they could be liable for the debts incurred by the overall group.

With two-thirds of the licences held by owners due to expire in September, it is now being suggested that cash-strapped owners will walk, leaving their neighbours to carry the can. The landlord has challenged them to do just that.