Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire chief executive behind social media giant Meta, and his wife Priscilla Chan have bought Strancally Castle in Co Waterford.
The tech tycoon recently made the switch from Silicon Valley to the Blackwater Valley, but why is Ireland an attractive place for billionaires to acquire residences?
Maeve McCarthy, who is director at Charles McCarthy Estate Agents in west Cork, says that although billionaires snaffling up big country piles might be slightly on the rise, it is fundamentally a niche market.
“We are never going to be inundated with people in that price bracket looking, but they are looking,” McCarthy says.
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“There’s a very small pool of billionaires in the world, so if I have an increase of one viewing that’s an increase of activity in that market. It is a very narrow market.”
In McCarthy’s experience of dealing with high-net-worth individuals in the residential property market, she says that discretion is key.
“Money talks, but wealth is silent,” she says.
According to McCarthy, ultra wealthy individuals are attracted to Ireland “because the legal system is very stable, it is a very dynamic country with a connection to Europe and people value their privacy and discretion. Irish people understand that and respect that”.
An unexpected selling point for these clients can also be the wet and cool Irish weather.
“Usually as an estate agent operating in west Cork, the weather can be very temperamental and you meet people and you apologise for the weather and now people say ‘Oh my god this is amazing we love it. Don’t apologise for it, this is what we are coming here for’. I think the global climate change is having a positive impact on these kinds of sales.”
So, who are the billionaires snapping up Ireland’s country piles?
John Collison
Abbey Leix Estate, Co Laois
John Collison, the co-founder and president of fintech company Stripe, paid somewhere in the region of €20 million to acquire Abbey Leix, the vast Co Laois estate and former ancestral home of the de Vesci family.
The 18th-century house sits on 1,120 acres, including stands of specimen trees, walled gardens and farmland. The main residence extends to 2,500sq m and is complemented by no less than 10 estate houses and cottages.
The James Wyatt designed home boasts a classical library, a conservatory, a music room and an aptly named Gold Room.
John Malone
Castlemartin, Co Kildare and Humewood, Co Wicklow
Mark Zuckerberg’s interest in purchasing a home here emerged last year when Liberty Media’s billionaire owner John Malone told the Wall Street Journal that the Meta boss had offered to buy his Castlemartin house and estate in Kildare.
The “Cable Cowboy”, as Malone is known by, was reputed to be the US’s biggest private landowner for the best part of a decade. Malone owns both Castlemartin house and estate in Kildare and Humewood Castle in Wicklow.
Although Humewood Castle sold for €25 million in 2006, the property was priced at €8 million in 2012, shortly before Malone acquired the residence for a reported €7.2 million.
In a 2018 interview with The Irish Times, Malone estimated that he has spent about €300 million on a portfolio of personal assets in Ireland.
James Dyson
Ballynatray House, Co Waterford
The stately Ballynatray House on the river Blackwater is located a short distance from Zuckerberg’s new residence in Strancally Castle.
James Dyson, the billionaire behind the appliance company Dyson, reportedly purchased the property for about €29 million in 2024.
However, his riverside stately home was the subject of a planning dispute when he applied to build a helipad on the 850-acre estate last year. As of February this year, the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner got the green light for his helipad.
John Magnier
Killough Castle, Thurles, Co Tipperary
Irish billionaire business magnate John Magnier purchased Killough Castle in Thurles, Co Tipperary in 2024 via his Coolmore Stud. The price paid is understood to have been about €6.5 million.
The castle dates from the 1400s and sits on 471 acres of tillage land, grassland and forestry with a further 56-acre outfarm bringing the entire estate to an overall area of 527 acres.
James Berwind
Sprayfield, Kinsale, Co Cork
James Berwind is a fifth-generation member of the Berwind family, the dynasty behind the Berwind Corporation. He has amassed an impressive property portfolio in Kinsale, Co Cork, where his properties include Georgian house Sprayfield.
Sprayfield was sold to Berwind in 2023 for €4.5 million, reported to be one of single largest residential transactions in the State that year.
In December of last year it was reported in the Irish Examiner that neighbours had launched an appeal of plans to build an animal sanctuary at Sprayfield.
The plans also included a new detached building which would be used for storage and a gallery space, new sporting facilities in the form of a gym, and a padel and tennis court.
Travis Knight
Ocean Breeze, Kinsale, Co Cork
American film-maker, animator and heir to the Nike Empire Travis Knight also decided to purchase a home in Cork, reportedly paying €4.5 million for Ocean Breeze in Scilly, Kinsale, in 2023.
Knight is the son of Phil Knight, who founded the sports apparel company which employs more than 77,000 people, and, according to Forbes, is estimated to be worth more than $26 billion.
