Cullen is surprise buyer of £8m land

Dublin housebuilder Brian Cullen has emerged as the surprise purchaser of the three-acre housing site at Mount Merrion Avenue in Blackrock, Co Dublin. He paid just over £8 million for the site which we reckon to be the best to come on the market in the area for years. Though Brian and his father-in-law Jack Cosgrave have been running the very successful Jackson Properties housebuilding operation for a number of years, the Merrion Avenue land was acquired by him alone, rather than by the company. This doesn't mean there's a rift, however. Brian's involvement in Jackson is to continue: they are currently building 210 houses and apartments at Butterfield Avenue in Rathfarnham which are to go on the market in the autumn.

Because the Mount Merrion site backs on to the listed houses on Walton Terrace, he will have to tread carefully with the well-heeled neighbours. However, the development will probably have large new houses at that end of the site and expensive apartments elsewhere. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, who owned the site, were somewhat unfortunate when they settled on June 15th as the closing date for tenders. It coincided with the publication of third Bacon Report. As a result, Mr Cullen got his site for a few million quid less than he might have expected.