An estate agent selling 18 cottages in Finglas as one lot, with an asking price of €36 million, has said he has at least three more similar sites for sale in the Dublin area.
Karl Mulligan, owner of the Re/Max agency in west Dublin, is acting on behalf of the owners of the Meakstown cottages who have agreed to sell their homes as a single lot.
The cottages would be worth around €500,000 each, depending on condition, if they were sold individually, he said. But if all 18, as well as possibly another bungalow, are sold as one lot, the residents could each receive around €2 million.
The cottages, which have particularly large back gardens, have been on sale for just over a week and are attracting potential buyers interested in redeveloping the site. However, some parties may be put off by the prospect of having to "bank" the eight-acre site for a considerable length of time. This is because it is not zoned for the kind of high-density residential housing that most developers would wish to build in order to maximise the return on their investment.
Under the Fingal County Council development plan, the cottages are zoned as "rural clusters", which would prohibit high-density housing.
Mr Mulligan, who owns a number of Re/Max branches, has been dealing with other similar projects. These include 10 houses at Ballycullen Road, Rathfarnham, on three acres, for sale at €17.5 million; six cottages at Killeen Road, Dublin 10, which recently sold for more than €9 million; and nine cottages in Corduff, west Dublin, on the market for €10 million. Mr Mulligan said he is also working on another similar project which he hopes to bring to the market soon.
He said the decision to sell such sites as one lot usually comes about when one or two residents approached Re/Max, which then sent leaflets to other residents to see if they would be interested.
"You can't have just one or two interested in proceeding, so you would normally have a meeting to ensure unanimity," he said.
"There is also no point putting it on the market unless the figure [ asked for] is what all 18 are looking for."
Once a figure is agreed in principle, he said, an independent surveyor would usually be hired to see how realistic this was, and a marketing plan put together. He was aware of other instances where residents had attempted to sell a group of residences as one lot, but had been unable to secure overall agreement.
Seán Whelan,who owns one of the Meakstown cottages and was "born and reared" there, told The Irish Times it was "like winning the Lotto". He hopes to buy a farm in Co Dublin, and will move his elderly mother with him.
"I couldn't believe it when they said you are sitting on up to €2 million. I always said if I ever won the Lotto I would buy a farm . . . but I don't want to set my heart too much on going and then crying my eyes out if it doesn't sell."