FLAMBOYANT PROPERTY developer Donal Caulfield, who admitted to The Irish Times recently that he is now working for the bank rather than for himself, is the latest homeowner who has had to rent out his house rather than sell it.
Caulfield’s home Silverdale House, by the gates of the Phoenix Park, was put on the market last September as the property crisis deepened.
There were no takers for the five-bedroom house at €2.75 million, despite its prime location and lavish makeover that includes a Chalon kitchen and ritzy bedrooms dressed with a snakeskin effect wallpaper.
The house has since been let, for upwards of €3,000 a month, which may be some small comfort to Caulfield who now spends a good deal of time in Ibiza.
Caulfield, who is involved in hotel and apartment projects on the Spanish island, was best known in Dublin for his Belmayne housing development on the Malahide Road, which he wrapped in billboards featuring reclining models in bacchanalian poses designed to attract young buyers in to see bling-filled showhouses and gardens designed by Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen and Diarmuid Gavin.
