A new selling season for starter homes gets under way today with the prospect that buyers will find it somewhat easier than last year to get their feet on the first rung of the property ladder. This week new phases in a number of schemes are being launched, and in coming months, up to 20 new developments are due to come on stream. There is a general expectation that starter homes will remain scarce until the autumn, when the effects of the Bacon report on rezoning and the servicing of land will become obvious. In the meantime, price increases are expected to remain modest, with values rising by no more than 5 per cent in many cases.
Tower Homes plans to release the last 25 houses in its Skerries Rock scheme at the north Dublin seaside resort, where it has sold 270 homes since early in 1997. Agents Ross McParland handled the £35 million sales campaign. Almost half of the two-bedroom townhouses and three and four-bedroom semis and detached houses sold to date have been bought by first-time buyers. The 25 houses still available are all three-bedroom semis with extended kitchens which will cost from £129,995 to £134,995. A showhouse will open on Saturday and Sunday from 2.30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Estate agents Gerry Leahy are launching new phases of three schemes, one in Blanchardstown and the other two in the Lucan area. Show-houses will open on Saturday and Sunday at Coolmine Lodge, Clonsilla Road in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, where bookings are being taken for 30 three and four-bedroom semis which will be ready for occupation in March and April. There will be three different styles of three-bedroom houses costing from £116,950 for a unit of 980 sq ft; £118,950 for a home with 1,050 sq ft and £121,950 for a different home with similar square footage. For families needing extra space, Newlyn Developments also has a four-bedroom home with 1,250 sq ft which is priced at £135,950.
This weekend, Gable Developments is also launching 30 houses in another phase of its housing scheme at Brookwood in the Griffeen Valley in Lucan. There are two types of three-bed semi available: one of 1,100 sq ft, including a large kitchen and a separate utility room, is priced from £110,950. The smaller 1,030-sq-ft unit, priced at £108,950, has an extended kitchen which opens into an L-shaped living area. Gable is also introducing a four-bedroom semi at this stage, a unit with 1,250 sq ft and a price tag of £126,950. Leahy Property Consultants will be staffing the show-houses on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
Leahy are selling agents along with Kieran Brady and Associates for Ballydowd Manor in Lucan village, where bookings are being taken for two and three-bedroom homes which are expected to appeal to first-time buyers. There will be four different types of units on offer, a two-bedroom terraced home with 800 sq ft costing £95,750; a three-bedroom terraced unit with 1,000 sq ft priced at £104,750; a three-bedroom detached home with 1,000 sq ft and a price tag of £108,950, and a three-bed semi with 1,100 sq ft including a kitchen extension which will cost £115,500. The developers, Hugh McGreevy and Sons, previously completed Elmwood and Esker Park in Lucan.
Estate agents Billy O'Sullivan and Associates will also be pitching for first-time buyers when he takes bookings for 40 two-bedroom back-to-back townhouses at the highly successful St Raphael's Manor development at Celbridge, Co Kildare. Prices for the 840 sq ft homes will range from £96,950 for terraced units to £99,950 for corner units. This element of the scheme will be known as Priory Square and will have a courtyard with parking spaces and open landscaped gardens. The houses will have a small porch area leading into a comfortable living-room with an ornamental fireplace and large window.
The kitchen has a small dining area off it. Stairs rise from the living-room to the first floor, where there are two double bedrooms and a stylish bathroom with bath and stand-in shower. Billy O'Sullivan will take bookings for the houses at his offices at 9 Upper Fitzwilliam Street or at the site on Saturday and Sunday between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Elsewhere on the site, there are four three-bedroom show-houses available at £119,950 and three four-bedroom homes, also used as show-houses, at £149,950.
In southside Dublin, another 48 spacious apartments priced from £189,000 are being launched in the second phase of Galloping Green, a development on the Stillorgan Road at the junction of Newtownpark Avenue and Leopardstown Road in Stillorgan, Co Dublin.
Built by Tudor Homes, all the apartments, which range in size from 800 to 1,000 sq ft, have either a patio or a balcony. Some have two en suite bathrooms, and all have high quality fitted kitchens, maple Shaker-style wardrobes and feature fireplaces.
The scheme of 118 homes consists of six buildings built around formal gardens. Viewings are Saturday and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., or weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
