Around the Block: Reminder of boomtime as packed weekend viewing yields €17m in sales of new Dún Laoghaire family homes

There's nothing new about crowded viewings of houses in Dublin of late, but it's a different story when those crowds convert to actual sales on the day. It must have been like a scene from the mid-2000s, then, when huge crowds turned up last weekend to view the first phase of 30 new three-storey houses at Brickfield in Dún Laoghaire.

Up to 800 parties are reported to have viewed the new A-rated Cosgrave-built homes on the Honeypark site of the old Dún Laoghaire golf club. By Sunday evening all 30 homes had been sold, generating a massive €17 million in sales. That’s 30 deposits down, with the homes ready to move into by April. Not bad for a weekend’s work.

Prices ranged from €565,000 up to €645,000 for three- and four-bed homes according to selling agent David Lawlor of Hooke and MacDonald. They will release another 10 houses for sale this week that are due for completion by August, and the final 20 houses in the fully landscaped development will be released in April and completed by October.

This scheme follows on from Cosgrave's Honeypark scheme of 65 smaller homes that launched last year on the same site accessed via a separate entrance. Although all the houses there sold well, they certainly weren't snapped up at the same rate witnessed last weekend. The Brickfield scheme will have access to the same amenities as those on the Honeypark site including a carefully planned playground, putting green, an artificial lake and a shopping centre, located at the entrance to Honeypark, where the anchor tenants include Tesco, Boots and Costa Coffee. It is due to open this summer. Goes to show, if you build it properly, they will come.