A site of nearly two acres near Sutton Dart station in north Dublin is for sale with planning for €1.55 million. It sold for €11 million in 2003
A HOUSING SITE of almost two acres at Sutton in north Dublin, which sold in 2003 for €11 million, is back on the market at €1.55 million.
The new guide price underlines the dramatic fall-off in the value of development land even in a highly popular and convenient area of north Dublin.
Sites in many provincial cities and towns are expected to take an even greater hit if and when receivers attempt to offload them.
Wesley Rothwell of CB Richard Ellis, who is acting for three low profile developers who bought the Sutton land from Dublin City Council, said the 1.98 acres on Railway Avenue – off Baldoyle Road – were now “priced to sell”.
The site is within a few minutes walk of Sutton Dart Station and is about 500m from Sutton Cross, where the shopping facilities include a large Superquinn supermarket and a hotel.
Fingal County Council originally granted planning permission for 75 apartments and a crèche on the site.
A subsequent appeal to An Bord Pleanála resulted in the number of units being reduced to 60, of which 41 are two-bedroom apartments, six are three-bedroom apartments, eight are one-bedroom homes and five are duplex units.
But with an estimated 10,000 apartments now overhanging the market in the greater Dublin area, Rothwell says demand has now switched to traditional style houses in established suburban areas near public transport.
The Sutton area as well as the adjoining areas of Clontarf and Howth are characterised by large family homes, often on spacious mature gardens.
A feasibility study prepared for the Railway Avenue site suggests that there is potential for 27 semi-detached houses with floor areas of 140sq m (1,506sq ft) as well as four two-bedroom duplex units and two two-bedroom apartments. Three-bedroom semis in this location would be expected to sell in the region of €350,000 to €375,000. “The big attraction here is that you are a minute’s walk from the Dart Station,” says Rothwell.
At a price of €1.55 million, the unit price per home under the feasibility study would work out at less than €47,000 compared to a previous cost of over €183,000 for each of the 60 apartments.
During the property boom, a landowner close by refused an offer of €10 million for a one-acre site that would accommodate 40 apartments. At that price it would have worked out at €250,000 per unit.
