Hooke & MacDonald continued its good run with £31 million worth of sales for the second weekend in a row. Top of the selling stakes was St Gabriels, at Cabinteely, with 42 houses and 23 apartments being sold, netting £20 million. Huge crowds turned up to view the show units. Prices ranged from £300,000 up to £680,000 for very large penthouses.

At Church View, Drumcondra, all 26 two-bedroom apartments and three-bedroom duplexes with prices starting at £190,000 sold within days off plans, totting up £6 million in sales. These are being built in the grounds of All Hallows College and the strong off-plans activity is an indication of the increasing popularity of this very convenient locality.

In the North, Ben Eden, a new residential development close to Belfast Castle in north Belfast, produced sales of £5 million sterling at the launch. This Carville-built scheme is the first of its size in this part of the city in recent years, signalling a rise in fortune for what has been one of the most undervalued localities in Belfast. Prices ranged from from £75,500 for a two-bedroom apartment up to £169,950 for a four-bedroom detached house.