FROM small beginnings, it starts again. Not so long a commercial estate agent would hardly have gotten out of bed for a €3 million land sale, but this week it caused a stir when a site in Carrickmines was declared sold at €3 million on the nose.

Seven years ago the 4.46-acre site on Glenamuck Road is reputed to have sold for around €20 million, but that was in the days when banks were prepared to lash out millions for any development site that crossed their desk. In the case of Glenamuck Road, a staggering €1 billion was spent on buying newly rezoned land. Much of it went to householders with big gardens who had the good fortune to find themselves in a virtual Eldorado of development.

This week’s sale is no less dramatic in its way. Though representing an 85 per cent drop in value, it’s being hailed as, well if not a triumph, at least a return to sales activity in the land market.

No sooner had Mark Reynolds of Savills announced the sale when he was inundated with calls from bankers and builders enquiring about the market, with the bankers wanting to sell and the builders wanting to buy something at the same price level. The builders have shifted their interest to potential housing sites, now that it has become clear that nobody wants apartments, paticuarly in the Dublin suburbs. A Eurostat housing report released yesterday shows that Ireland has the lowest apartment occupancy level in Europe, with just 3.7 per cent of people living in flats compared to an EU average of 42 per cent.

In Ireland, the survey shows, 39.1 per cent of people live in detached houses, and 57.6 per cent live in semi-detached or terraced houses. No wonder the builders are redrawing their plans along the lines of the traditional three-bed semi.