AN AUCTION planned for Nice today to handle the sale of a stunning Riviera mansion owned by troubled financier Derek Quinlan, may not be going ahead-because the property has apparently already been sold.
An estate agent based in the south of France estimated yesterday that Villa La Carriere at Cap Ferrat – put on the market after Barclays Bank got a French court order – has made the guts of €70 million.
Quinlan, who fled the country in the early stages of the financial crisis, originally raised €48 million from AIB when he bought the eight -bedroom, 10,000 sq ft mansion in 2006. He also spent a small fortune upgrading the house and its 8,000 sq ft grounds. The loans soared to almost €65 million when he refinanced the AIB loans at the Monaco branch of Barclays Bank.
St Jean Cap Ferrat is one of the most sought after locations on the Riviera, where Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, Paul Allen of Microsoft and the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber also have homes.
Villa La Carriere is located on a clifftop with an outdoor heated swimming pool overlooking the Cote d’Azur. The house has an internal elevator, nine bathrooms, a wine cellar and disco. The house is subject to an annual 3 per cent property tax based on the market value, suggesting a tax bill of €2.1 million if the selling price is around €70 million.
Back in Dublin, another of Quinlan’s investment properties at 43 Ailesbury Road in Ballsbridge looks set to change hands in the next week or so. Knight Frank, the receivers appointed by Nama, got a surprisingly strong response when they invited “best and final offers” for the two-storey over garden level house which has been vacant for a number of years. It is expected to sell for around €3 million, well short of the €8.5 million paid for it by Quinlan in 2007.
Last Christmas he also sold his Edwardian family home at 6 Shrewsbury Road in Ballsbridge, for around €7 million.
