A Castleknock site is on the market at 40 per cent off its 2005 value while a site in Sallins has sold for 75 per cent less than its 2004 price, writes JACK FAGAN
A 17-ACRE residential site opposite Castleknock Golf Club in west Dublin, sold in September, 2005, for €25 million, is back on the market at around €15 million on the instructions of a receiver for Bank of Ireland. The land had been owned by RQB, a syndicate of about 15 investors headed by Niall McFadden and Paddy Kelly.
And in another sign of the dramatic fall in development land prices, a site of 9.6 acres at Sallins, Co Kildare, bought six years ago for close to €10 million, has just been resold for somewhat less than €2.5 million – a drop of at least 75 per cent on the original price.
The site at Castleknock was zoned for a residential development but did not have planning permission when it was sold in September, 2005, by Emelio Cirillo, owner of the Dublin restaurant Nicos. The RQB syndicate is understood to have borrowed in the region of €17 million of the overall cost (€27.5 million) through a non-recourse loan from Bank of Ireland. The land included Diswellstown House, a large 17th century house, which was previously owned by a Scottish family, the Kennans.
The task of securing planning permission took longer than usual because of a problem over services at the site. Planning permission eventually came through in August, 2007, for 61 houses and 96 apartments and, with site valuations then anywhere between €200,000 and €300,000 per unit, the syndicate believed that the planning consent had raised the overall value to around €40 million. That assessment was short-lived and, with the syndicate uncertain as to whether it should sell on the site or develop it and new house sales rapidly drying up, it quickly became apparent that they had missed the market.
Bank of Ireland recently appointed David Carson of Deloitte as a receiver for the Castleknock site which is now being offered for sale off-market by estate agent Kelly Walsh. The task of selling it has been made all the more difficult by the current banking freeze and the uncertainty as to whether the new homes market has bottomed out. Initially the site will be offered privately to about half a dozen local developers.
Meanwhile, joint agents CB Richard Ellis and Sherry Fitz-Gerald O’Reilly have managed to offload the 9.6-acre Sallins site for less than €2.5 million on behalf of a receiver for Anglo Irish Bank. The land was acquired in 2004 by Red Thorn Developments for a figure believed to be close to €10 million. The housebuilder subsequently secured planning permission for 116 homes – 56 houses, 24 duplex units and 36 apartments as well as a crèche. The site is within 200 metres of the village centre.
At the latest selling price, the cost per unit works out at less than €20,000 – a long way from the standard rate of almost €100,000 in the Sallins area at the peak of the property boom. The purchaser, who has not been named, is likely to seek permission to change the development to an all house scheme because of the large supply of apartments overhanging the market in the greater Dublin area.
