Seeing is believing on the Net

Irish holiday homes on the Internet - why not? One cottage at Schull, Co Cork, has just been sold to an Irish-American who bought it sight unseen because he liked the messages on the Internet. The property sold was one of 30 holiday cottages put on the market by Cork entrepreneur Gerry Wycherley, who developed the business park at the Marina in Cork and who is also in the process of developing the Cork Airport business park at a cost of £80 million.

Mr Wycherley's business empire includes 50 holiday cottages in Schull and in his native Roscarbery in west Cork. He is now in the process of selling 30 of the Schull holiday homes and is asking £100,000 for the two-bedroom units and £160,000 for the four-bedroom ones. Sales are being handled by Skibbereen estate agent Charles McCarthy. So far, he says, interest in the holiday homes has been very brisk.

In recent years, holiday properties in the west Cork area have been in huge demand and prices have spiralled to reflect interest in the market. Clonakilty, Roscarbery, Schull and Baltimore are regarded as prime locations for holiday homes by people living outside of Cork.

It is now almost impossible to buy a property in any of these towns at a reasonable price. Mr Wycherley said the attraction of west Cork as a holiday destination had never been so great and that fact was driven home to him when one of the cottages on sale was sold over the Net to an American couple with an Irish background.

"The interest has been phenomenal and although this couple had Irish roots, I still think it was incredible that they bought the cottage without ever having seen it."