Landowners alongside a stretch of the Buncrana road between Derry and the Border could be in for a multi-million pound windfall following a Northern departmental decision yesterday to earmark the area for the building of 5,000 houses.
"Already one landowner has sold for over £7 million sterling to a developer on the basis of this land being opened up for development," one estate agent said. "Now that the decision has been made, the sky is the limit. Just a few years ago land in that area was selling, for development purposes, for about £60-70,000 an acre. Now that the land is to be unlocked for the development of 5,000 houses, you can almost double that figure."
In the Waterside area of Derry, the planners are believed to be on the verge of approving an application for one of Northern Ireland's biggest retail warehouse parks. The multi-million pound scheme will be built by the US retail company, Sears.