A RESTORED country house on 17 acres by the shores of Lough Derg is among the first sales completed in 2012. A businessman from the US paid well over the minimum reserve of €1.5 million for St David’s, Urra, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, according to Robert Ganly of Knight Frank, who handled the sale.

The 495.5sq m (5,341sq ft) property – which has many period details as well as its own dock, boat house and a landing pad for helicopters – was put on the market in October 2011.

Six buyers – one Irish, three from the UK, one from the US and one from the UAE – competed for it. All parties were invited to submit bids over the reserve and, after competitive bidding, the property was sold to the American. The sale was completed shortly after Christmas.

Originally built by a family called Holmes as a fishing lodge in the late 1790s, it stayed in the family – one of whom married into the Goodbodys – until the 1960s/1970s. It was once run as a restaurant and was renovated in the past 10 years by its last owner.