The west Dublin village of Rathcoole is destined to grow rapidly over the next few years as house-builders avail of newly rezoned land for housing. One of the best located sites, 6.4 acres adjoining the community school, is likely to have a broad appeal when it is offered for sale by tender through Finnegan Menton on May 23rd.
The agency is quoting a guide price of £400,000 to £500,000 (€507,895-€634,869) an acre for the land, which should appeal to small and medium-sized builders concentrating on the under-supplied starter homes market.
An indication of the strength of that market was provided last month when Cavan Developments sold over £10 million (€12.7m) worth of houses in a new scheme of 200 units.
The strong demand for homes is partly due to Rathcoole's close proximity to a number of major employment centres, including Citywest (a mere three kilometres away) where a large number of international companies are based.
Rathcoole is a long-established village just off the N7 Naas dual-carriageway and 16 kilometres from the city centre. It is less than seven kilometres from Tallaght, which now has an excellent range of facilities.
Finnegan Menton says that the planners have indicated that two-storey houses would be approved on the site with a density of 15 to 20 homes per acre. The land occupies a prominent location and has road frontage of over 160 metres.
Meanwhile, a few miles away at Saggart, a site of 8.13 acres zoned mixed residential/commercial was sold at auction last Friday for £4 million (€5.08m) by J P & M Doyle. Last October, the Wexford-based developer Seamus Neville paid in the region of £15 million (€19.05m) for 47 acres of housing land in Saggart owned by the Clondalkin Group. It will be used for first-time buyers' homes.
The Swiftbrook land was identified in the last Bacon report as ideal for a large scale housing development. Development land in Rathcoole has a higher value than similar sites in Saggart, according to one estate agent specialising in new house sales.
