Ireland's increasing number of country clubs are opting for more holiday homes to maximise profits. Mount Juliet, the K Club and Galway Bay all have golf villas and others are planning similar developments to generate extra business for their clubhouses and restaurants. Most of the smart money has been going into both Galway Bay and Mount Juliet in recent years, as the K Club awaits planning permission for another 40 houses and a second 18-hole golf course.
Investment opportunities are to become available shortly at Mount Juliet, when newly developed lodges and individual sites are offered for sale. Seven of the 10 lodges in a stylish courtyard scheme have been sold off the plans and the remaining two-storey, two-bedroom units are available at £315,000 each. Mount Juliet is also to sell 10 individual house sites on the edge of the golf course at prices between £200,000 and £300,000. Three other sites have been sold and in all cases the new houses will be built to designs and specifications laid down by the estate.
All the Georgian-style two-storey houses will have between 4,000 and 5,000 sq ft, which will cost anything from £500,000 to £1 million to build.
Mount Juliet has successfully tested this market by selling five sites at The Inch, a hillside location fronting on to the River Nore and backing on to the golf course. Four of the five houses were built by foreigners but most interest is now coming from Irish business people.
No one knows more than the owners of Mount Juliet that the housing demands have to be carefully evaluated in the overall interests of one of Ireland's great estates. The low-density development to date has worked well and it is estimated the final house count will be about 70 units, according to Pat Hegarty, managing director of Mount Juliet Properties. Mr Hegarty says the heavy wooded nature of the estate will enable them to provide clusters of houses at locations where they will be secluded and well screened. The latest development of 10 terraced lodges in the North Paddocks conforms with the old world ambience of the 1,500-acre estate.
The three homes still available offer a high standard of comfort and superb facilities for entertaining. They have a huge open living-room/dining-room. It is a room full of character and light and with superb views over the golf course. There are wooden floors everywhere and wooden ceilings upstairs to give the house a warm and distinctive finish.
The kitchen, like the rest of the house, is finished to a particularly high standard, with attractive wall and floor units and polished granite worktops. The two bedrooms come with en suite bathrooms.
Mount Juliet's superb golf course is proving a money spinner, with green fees of over £1 million putting it in the top three with Ballybunion and Killarney. Pat Hegarty says the country club's location - within two hours of both Dublin and Cork - means clients "recognise that it is far enough to feel you are getting away from it all, yet close enough to ensure you don't feel exhausted."
