Just as Bernard McNamara prepares to re-enter Dublin’s shattered construction market more properties he bought at exorbitant prices during the property bubble are being offered for sale again at a fraction of their original cost.

One such investment is the golf club and lands at Kilmashogue, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16, which extend to almost 100 acres in the foothills of the Dublin mountains and which are for sale through Aislinn O’Buachalla of JLL at €2,475,000,

The land sale in this instance includes the nine-hole golf course and clubhouse on 39.4 acres at Ballinascorney, which are occupied on a 10-year lease with break options every two years. The club is currently paying a rent of €10,600 per annum. The remaining 60 acres are in farming use.

Even though the zoning for the Kilmashogue lands under the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council's development plan are to "protect and improve rural amenity and to provide for the development of agriculture" McNamara apparently considered that there was a reasonable chance of it being rezoned for affordable housing.

Other uses

In the meantime the permissible uses include a holiday caravan park, cemetery, community facility, boarding kennels or home-based economic activity. Other uses open for consideration, however, include residential, institutional accommodation, neighbourhood shop and sports activity.

Ballinascorney Golf Club – promoted on the internet as “Ireland’s friendliest golf club” – has a modern two-storey clubhouse on site extending to over 28sq m (3,055sq ft) with separate office and car parking to the front of the building.

The club was founded in 1971 and was first located on Bohernabreena. It moved to its current location on Kilmashogue Lane in 2002. Since then it has continually improved the course and in 2011 it redeveloped and extended the course to include new greens and tee boxes as well as the addition of two new par-five holes.

The club is about 11km south of Dublin city centre and less than 5km from Rathfarnham, according to JLL.