DUBLIN property prices continue to each new heights with a record price set yesterday for residential development land. The Galway based builder, O'Malley Construction, paid £1.9 million at auction yesterday for Sunbury Gardens, a 1.6 acre site in the Dartry suburb of Dublin.

The price worked out at £1,187,500 an acre, which is a new record for a site without planning permission, according to auctioneer Mr Fintan Gunne, who handled the sale.

St Luke's and St Anne's Hospital board, which sold the land, was delighted with the price, he said. The property, which is zoned residential, is off Dartry Road, adjacent to St Kevin's Park.

O'Malley has successfully developed a duplex housing complex, Ballsbridge Wood, on Shelbourne Road in Ballsbridge. Planning permission for a similar scheme is expected to be sought for the Dartry site.