Exclusive housing sites for sale on the Ballinamona estate near Waterford city have attracted strong interest from across the country, according to Mr Don Palmer of Palmer Auctioneers in Waterford, joint agents with Gunne Residential.
"We've sold a number of sites and we have a lot of bookings," he reports, some weeks after the sites were first offered for sale. He says there is nothing like this development in the vicinity of Waterford city, which itself has grown significantly in recent years.
Housing developments have emerged on a number of other large Irish estates with public facilities - Mount Juliet, Powerscourt, Headfort and Straffan - but the housing complex planned for Ballinamona will be one of the first on a privately run estate.
On offer are two cluster sites, each with outline planning permission for 12 luxury lodges of roughly about 2,165 sq ft. The clusters, which are intended for developers, carry a guideline price of £600,000 each.
Projected prices for the completed lodges, which will have either two or three bedrooms (all en suite) - there are four proposed designs - are in the £230,000 to £250,000 range.
A total of 51 sites will be offered for sale in two phases, with 24 to be sold in the first. These sites, which are between half-anacre and three-quarters of an acre each, will range in price from £120,000 to £135,000.
Full planning permission has been granted for five different house styles, varying from four-bedroom units with 2,174 sq ft to five-bedroom homes with 3,508 sq ft and an optional conservatory.
The houses, designed by a local architect, are in keeping with the quiet, rural character of the area and in accordance with specifications laid down by the owners of the estate.
While there are no golf courses on Ballinamona, and no plans to build one, six courses lie within 10 minutes' drive of the estate.
Dunmore East is also renowned as a sailing centre, while Waterford city has a new marina.
Angling, horse-riding and shooting are available in the area.
Ballinamona itself will have an equestrian centre with trekking and a crosscountry course for future residents.
Mr Palmer says that Ballinamona should appeal to investors, business and sporting people, developers or individuals who want a property in beautiful surroundings.
Good sites in Waterford city range in price from £80,000 to £100,000, while a half-acre site a few miles out can cost from £50,000 to £75,000.
Interested purchasers are being assured by the selling agents that no further development will take place on the estate.
Ballinamona, the former seat of the Carew family, is a 300-acre walled estate some three miles from Waterford city, three miles from Tramore and five miles from Dunmore East.
Lying between the main Waterford-Tramore road and the old Tramore road, the secluded estate has parkland and mature woodland.
The Carew family came to Ireland with Strongbow and acquired lands in Waterford and Wexford. The lands at Ballinamona were in the family for almost two centuries and the main house, now the home of Mr and Mrs Vahe Bogassian, is a pleasant Victorian house set in woodland and overlooking a lake.
The late Major Robert Carew, the last member of the family to live in Ballinamona, had the first agency in the south of Ireland for Volkswagen cars.
