Co Galway: from €140,000: With many tax designated housing schemes coming to an end around the country, househunters and investors now have an opportunity to pick up well- located holiday homes which were built in the 1990s and sold with considerable tax breaks.
Take Clifden Glen, a holiday village of around 110 homes outside Clifden in Co Galway. It was built as a Business Expansion Scheme (BES) on a site of around 190 acres, and its houses rented out as holiday accommodation. Now that the tax breaks are over, around 20 of them have come on the market through Galway agency Sherry FitzGerald Kavanagh, which has just opened a branch in Clifden.
One-bedroom cottages start at €140,000 and three-bedroom houses are available at €205,000, while refurbished three-beds can be bought for €225,000.
Located about 1.6kms from Clifden, it's a pretty village with traditional style houses set in individual sites within the estate. Facilities include tennis courts, a children's playground, playing fields, mini golf and a bar and restaurant. A new management company set up last year by owners of the village plans to revamp and extend the facilities, possibly to include a spa and horse-riding.
Clifden Glen has proved popular with tourists from Northern Ireland, and the agency plans to market the houses there, as well as in the south.
There are two property types available in the scheme: three-bedroom detached houses with 83sq m (893sq ft) and small one-bedroom semi-detached units with 40sq m (431sq ft).
Service charges are currently around €2,000 a year per unit, which includes regular repainting of the exteriors.
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