The highest price achieved this year for a large period house was the €51 million paid for Ballinteer Hall on Ballinteer Avenue in Rathfarnham, Dublin 16, but in this case the underlying value was not in the Victorian mansion, but in the 24.3 acres of development land around it. Jack Fagan, Property Editor, reports.
The selling price was a staggering €15 million above the guide because of the high level of interest in the site from housebuilders running short of building land. It was bought by Maynooth-based property developer Glenkerrin Homes who will be hoping to see new house prices continuing to rise in the new year. Given that Ballinteer Hall will be worth little more than €2 million when it is surrounded by new homes, the planning permission for 401 new homes will work out at about €123,000 per unit.
Of the total, 152 units will be one-, two- and three-bed apartments while a further 128 will be two-, three- and four-bedroom duplex homes. The balance of 121 permissions are for three-, four- and five-bed houses.
The Ballintyre Hall development will be one of the best located in south Dublin, within a few minutes' drive of the M50. The homes will be built directly opposite the Superquinn store on Ballinteer Avenue in a solid, affluent area. The selling agent will be HOK.
The second highest selling price for a house and lands was the €11 million paid at auction for Roselawn, a Georgian house on 284 acres near Celbridge, Co Kildare. Although the house is in need of complete refurbishment, the selling price was double the pre-auction guide issued by Coonan Auctioneers and Brophy Farrell Auctioneers. The identity of the purchaser has never been disclosed but it is believed locally that the new owner is the businessman and racehorse owner JP McManus.
The land has long-term development potential, being located one and a half miles from Celbridge and three miles from Maynooth. The house, which has not been lived in for over a decade, is an impressive period piece from the outside but in poor condition internally. At one stage it belonged to Michael Collins's brother Sean. Another period house in the same general area, Glenwood House on 105 acres at Clonee Road, Lucan, was sold by joint agents Lisney and McDonald brothers for €10.5 million.
Although the new owner - thought to be a Dublin hotelier who is also involved in property development - is hoping to have the land rezoned, local political sources indicated that this is unlikely to happen for some considerable time, if at all, because of its current amenity zoning and the fact that it is located in a sensitive area along the Liffey Valley. Glenwood House is attributed to Gandon, also the architect of Charlie Haughey's home, Abbeyville, but there the connection ends because the Lucan house has disappointing dimensions.
Another estate targeted for housing, Clontra, on the outskirts of Shankill in south Dublin, was bought for around €9 million by a housebuilder before it was due to go to auction.
The new owner lost no time in moving to have the 20 acres rezoned for housing and though he had the support of the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county manager, Derek Brady, the councillors were having none of it and excluded it from their development plan.
In the meantime, the owner can enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the exquisite two-storey Gothic-style house, completed in 1862 and designed by Dublin architects Deane and Woodward. Lisney were joint selling agents of Clontra House along with Jackson-Stops.
