GOOD NEWS FINALLY came for a languishing ghost estate in Co Carlow yesterday when it sold at auction for four times its reserve. Glendale Estate, a 14-acre development outside Tullow with 63 unfinished houses, sold for €640,000.
This works out at just over €10,000 per house, not to mention the planning permission included in the sale for a further 58 sites.
DNG McCormack Properties were the joint agents for the sale of the scheme, which was originally built as a retirement village by Glendale Estates before the developers went into receivership.
The auction was conducted by Keith Lowe, chief executive of DNG properties, in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel yesterday afternoon. The guide price for the site was €150,000, but six bidders drove the bidding to €640,000 when it was finally claimed by a solicitor on behalf of an anonymous buyer.
Original planning restrictions for the site on Shillelagh Rd outside Tullow specified that the development’s use would be solely for over 55s. These have since been lifted, so the finished houses can now be sold or rented to anyone.
It’s understood the 63 houses are near completion – all require fitted kitchens – and groundwork is needed on the estate.
At the height of the boom the houses would have fetched about €200,000 each. If the houses are completed, they will do well to make €100,000 for a three-bed. Still not a bad return on an initial €640,000 investment.
Auctioneer Marcus McCormack described it as a vote of confidence in the market. Let’s hope work starts quickly on the estate’s completion, and the trend continues elsewhere.
