Price of Drumm's house pushes Abington values down

THE €1.65 million asking price for former Anglo-Irish bank chief David Drumm’s house in Abington, Malahide – put on the market this week just a month after Ronan Keating’s house sold there for €1.5 million – looks set to further drive down property prices in the neighbourhood.

A number of other houses are for sale, for prices ranging from €1.8 million to €3.5 million, in the luxury northside estate of 50 homes, built on 43 acres in 2000.

David Drumm’s double-fronted, Regency-style, six-bed mansion, 20 Abington, Malahide, Co Dublin, is being sold through North’s Property on the instruction of Kathleen Dwyer, the Boston lawyer appointed to liquidate the assets of the former Anglo Irish Bank chief in his bankruptcy case.

The 480sq m (5,167sq ft) house was originally put on market in 2009 at €3 million but was withdrawn after several price reductions and much legal wrangling.

This and the recent sale of Ronan Keating’s six-bed period-style house, Fulton, at 28 Abington, for a reported €1.5 million through Lisney, has meant that reality may have to bite for some of the other vendors in Abington where a number of big houses are for sale from €1.8 million to €3.5 million.

Among the other homes on the market are 44 Abington, being sold through Sherry FitzGerald Blanc with an asking price of €2.8 million, but open to negotiation. Bigger than Drumms at 624.9sq m (6,747sq ft), it has six-bedrooms and is on 0.7 acres.

Number 33 Abington is asking €1.8 million through O’Farrell Cleere. It is 435sq m (4,680sq ft) with six bedrooms and is on half an acre.

Meanwhile 5 Abington, a massive, 1161.3sq m (12,500sq ft) seven-bed house on 1.2 acres has a cinema and is asking €3.5 million through Terry O’Reilly.

Terry O’Reilly also has 11 Abington on his books: it is a 790sq m (8,500sq ft) five-bed with a swimming pool asking €2.1 million

Number 3 Abington is a one-acre site with no house asking €1.3 million though Property Team Noel Kelly.

Whether any of these vendors will revise their asking price downwards in the light of recent events remains to be seen, but according to Darren Chambers of Lisney – who sold Ronan Keating’s house – well-priced property in the area is attracting interest from professional types, “a mix of financial, medical and legal. It may sound blunt but get real and you will get the property sold”.

Chambers believes the asking price for David Drumm’s property is realistic. “We find there is a good demand and a pool of buyers for property at the €1.4m-€1.7m level.”

Abington was built on a wooded site, once a farm on the outskirts of Malahide, by Parkway Properties and was launched in June 2000, the most expensive scheme of its kind in the Dublin area at the time.

EM