Zoe Developments is understood to have agreed terms to acquire Loreto Abbey, a former convent and boarding school at Rathfarnham, Dublin 14. The buildings are likely to be converted into apartments, while seven acres at the rear will probably be used for housing.

Agents Hamilton Osborne King, which handled the sale, said it was not in a position to comment at this stage. However, Zoe is believed to have been the highest bidder at about £14 million. The selling agents originally quoted a guide price of £10 million-plus for the complex, which stands on 12.1 acres off Grange Road. The emergence of Zoe as the buyer will not come as a great surprise because as Dublin's most prolific apartment developer the company has been finding it increasingly difficult to find new sites in the city. Zoe's building operations have also been slowed down by the surprise decision of An Bord Pleanala to block the planning permission for a large apartments and commercial development on the former Bord Gais Eireann site at Barrow Street, Dublin 4.

The company is to put forward a modified scheme for what is one of the best remaining large sites in Dublin 4. Though only two of the blocks at Rathfarnham Abbey are listed for preservation - the central Georgian block and the church - the planners may not allow any major alterations to the other blocks that would affect the overall appearance of the complex. A feasibility study conducted for the Loreto Order has shown that the existing buildings covering almost 100,000 sq ft could accommodate about 93 apartments and that an additional 222 housing units could be built on the gardens and on the tennis courts behind the abbey.

Alternatively, the buildings could be converted into a 145-bedroom hotel and the site used for apartments and townhouses. The Loreto sisters are to retain two buildings on the southern side of the complex.

They are also keeping a small site at the rear, part of the old garden and orchard, where a retirement and nursing home is being built for elderly nuns. The main convent buildings are anchored by a central Georgian block of rose-coloured brick, flanked by the granite wings of the church on one side and by the convent hall and gymnasium on the other.