So you want to move to CAVAN?Set amidst the lovely 'Lake Country' you'll be amazed how far your euro goes in Cavan, writes Michael Parsons
If you've recently bought a house in Dublin and are up to your neck in debt, please look away now. On the other hand, if you are currently househunting make sure you are sitting down comfortably.
Ready? Fancy a five-bed detached house with a large garden in a nice area with a low crime rate, close to good schools, a main hospital, varied sports facilities and just minutes from peaceful countryside? For €320,000? You bet! No, it's not in eastern Ukraine or on a micro-island off the Senegalese coast but here on our very own doorstep. In Cavan.
Cavan! You're thinking: "Isn't it as remote as Wyoming? As mysterious as Transylvania? And close to, ahem, THE BORDER?" Yes, and it's great! Life up here sure is a lot slower. Some 75 miles from O'Connell Street's rat-race, Cavan town is set amidst the lovely "Lake Country". And what a relief to see the sparkling little loughs after dreary Meath!
The surrounding landscape is speckled with "one-off" houses which are often positively palatial. (Aren't family sizes supposed to be getting smaller?) They wouldn't look out of place in suburban Tunbridge Wells or the better districts of Surrey and make many of Dublin's new homes look like dolls' houses. Many were built by returning "Haughey emigrants" come home to roost. A case of Come back, Paddy Reilly . . . to the stockbroker belt.
Entry to the town is past retail parks, car showrooms and "drive-thru" McDonalds. This could be Detroit. There's a new Cavan Crystal Hotel and showroom with a shop stocking those tell-tale brands of Celtic affluence: Alessi, Mosse and Newbridge. The town centre is, by contrast, uncompromisingly provincial. Main Street has Dunnes Stores and Tesco alongside the usual mix of pubs, drapery shops, boutiques, fast food joints, hairdressers, banks and a couple of bookshops. Latté luvvies beware. There's a shortage of cafés and, oddly, newsagents.
There are shops selling clothes for "real men" as opposed to the girly stuff they sell up in Dublin (and, frankly, if you're the sort of chap who buys his kit in Harvey Nicks then you are unlikely to be moving to Cavan). But Cavan women have more metropolitan tastes. A lady from Cabinteely, "in town for the weekend", reported that Citizens of Humanity brand jeans, at €255, were on sale at Mademoiselle on Bridge Street; while The Nature Store on Main Street stocks new wonder-food Goji berries and Pu-erh Tea (by appointment to Victoria "Lady Bling" Beckham).
There are pubs with startling names, like The Full Shilling, The Bent Elbow and the Slieve Rossa (with an ad for Saturday night's entertainment by The Likely Lads). A poster outside the Breffni Inn advertised "bread, milk, tea, sugar, cigarettes and mass cards available here" alongside signs in various Eastern European languages offering the Lord knows what.
Market Square has been subjected to urban regeneration - and features a stone fountain (switched off, its brackish pool sadly littered) in the shape of a dolmen with an illegible inscription. Parallel Farnham Street is posher. Although busy with traffic desperately seeking a bypass, the street has a splendid new library building on the site of a previous orange hall. On the pavement outside stands Lord Farnham (once the local bigwig) in cold white marble - minus his plinth. He's literally been taken down a peg and now, with pointed symbolism, stands on the same level as the local people.
Next door is a fine courthouse fronted by a statue of Capt Sheridan. His uniform is vaguely first World War looking - but he's one of "the boys from the Troubles" (part one). The street has some nice Georgian and a terrace of pretty cut-stone houses one of which bears a blue plaque proclaiming that Percy French lived there.
Cavan is the virtual capital of the Quinn business empire and the economy appears to be thriving with a healthy mix of public and private sector jobs.
The area is a traditional destination for anglers but tourism has received a boost with the arrival of the swish new Radisson SAS Farnham Estate Hotel on the edge of town. A new golf course is being built on the 1,300 acres of parkland, woods and lakes, and there's a luxurious spa featuring a heated outdoor infinity pool.
The drive from Cavan to Dublin takes about two hours so it's outside comfortable commuting territory (though some people do) but the new M3 (that's the one close to the Hill of Tara which is causing all the fuss) will cut the travel time significantly. In the meantime, proximity to the Border has its advantages; congestion-free airports in Belfast are almost as handy as Dublin.
Estate agents report an ever-increasing number of enquiries - and house buyers - from Meath, Louth and Dublin especially. Auctioneer Don Crotty says: "The average price of a newly-built three-bed semi is €210,000 to €215,000 and, second-hand, even lower at €185,000 to €195,000."
But first-time buyers can find homes at even lower prices. One and two-bed apartments at Cluain Aoibhinn Court close to the town centre and overlooking Swellan Lake start at €165,000.
In the town centre, Section 23 apartments at Clare's Court cost between €245,000 and €285,000.
At the higher end of the scale, he'd recommend Lansdowne Manor, with "detached houses of 1,800sq ft in an exclusive gated development near the rugby club for about €350,000". Crotty is also agent for the luxury houses being built on the grounds of the Farnham Estate. A first phase of two and three-bed townhouses sold at the launch late last year at prices from €500,000. A second phase will be launched this spring. The houses attract tax relief as holiday homes and may be attractive to investors who wish to enter into a rental agreement with the hotel. Wealthy Cavan exiles in Dublin, New York and London are among the potential buyers.
Declan Woods of Pádraig Smith Auctioneers said he has recently noticed "commuters starting to look at Cavan because the M3 is expected to halve journey times to Dublin".
Some people who have already moved Dublin-to-Navan are now "prepared to move again - cashing in the capital appreciation on their houses in Meath - and striving for no mortgage".
Woods believes "Cavan has the best brick-for-euro ratio for any town of its size within the same radius of Dublin. It is still a buyers' market so the builders have had to create a good product to attract purchasers; three-bed semis are bigger than the national average."
The Drumgola Wood estate on Butlersbridge Road has a good selection of houses in all price ranges with seven different house types from three-bed semis to five-bed detached from €195,00 to €325,000. Woods says "most housebuyers were local until about 12 months ago but now a lot of non-nationals, including Eastern Europeans, Africans and Filipinos, are starting to buy".
He says the most sought-after address in Cavan is the townland of Drumellis, close to the golf club and hospital, where the best houses on large sites can fetch up to €1 million.
Nigel McHugh of ERA/GA Burns & Associates recently sold a five-bedroom detached house in the 15-year-old Carrickfern estate "close to the cathedral and the town centre and one of the most prestigious addresses in Cavan". The estate's residents include "doctors, politicians and even a Church of Ireland bishop" - so your every need will be catered for. The asking price was €318,000 and the house sold for €320,000.
McHugh says "when people from Cavan travel to Dublin they see similar-sized houses near the Phoenix Park advertised for €800,000". He has sold to "quite a few Dublin taxi drivers" and mentions a couple who had sold a small end-of-terrace house in Tallaght and bought a five-bed detached house in Cavan. "They still have money left over," he adds, "the man plans to work in Dublin for three days a week and do a bit of fishing and play golf on the other days." If you fancy doing the same, give him a bell.
