Cork housing scheme has 4,000 registered names with just 30 homes priced from €445k released

There’s an on-site launch of the first 30 of 193 private housing units via selling agents Catherine McAuliffe and Kate Buttimer of Savills and very large numbers are expected to view, attend and buy.

Some 4,000 registered home-hunters have pre-registered on the Bayly site online, where planning was granted under a ‘fast-track’ SHD process in 2015.

It’s thus the culmination of a long wait for this valuable suburban site, one going back some 20 years, on outer Douglas lands once associated with departed developers Frinailla, later acquired eight years ago by Cairn as part of a €500m Ulster Bank portfolio sale jointly with Lone Star.

Set up as a plc in 2015, Cairn has delivered 8,000 units to date, primarily in Dublin/Leinster, as well as Castletroy in Limerick and closed 1,750 sales in 2023 at reported average prices of €382,000, expecting to top that at 2,200 new builds and sales in 2024 across 20 sites.

Its Douglas site will total 472 units, in an area with up to 1,500 new-builds expected over the next few years. A 24 acre holding nearby, capable of taking 350 units, is currently under offer with agent Michael McKenna at a reported €7.5m with a spread of builder interest.

Final offers are expected by the end of this month on that relatively adjacent land that had a €6-€7m price guide when launched earlier this year after an off-market deal to a major builder fell through. Cairn are not in the bidding on that Douglas plot it’s understood.

Also selling close-by is the former Rockforest, Foxwarren upmarket homes site at Moneygourney, some 6.17acres with a planning grant about to expire for 23 remaining units: agent James O’Donovan of Savills has a signed deal forc 2.5acres due to close in coming weeks to a builder with completed developments in Cork city and coastal county settings.

Cairn’s first foray into Cork came shortly after it was established in ’15 (around the same time as rival Glenveagh was set up and which went for an IPO in 2017).

Cairn’s portfolio purchase included Castletreasure and two other Cork sites, the Good Shepherd Convent at Sunday’s Well, and at Dennehy’s Cross: Cairn later moved to sell all three, seeking €25m for this Castletreasure, Douglas, site. After only receiving offers at about €18m Cairn opted to develop the 52 acres themselves.

The steep, multi-level valley site necessitated multi-million euro groundworks and a new access bridge from Carr’s Hill, with civils including enormous retaining walls, now decked out as planted green walls, done by Sisk.

The setting is also already home to a new 24 classroom multi-level Educate Together national school for the burgeoning Douglas and Rochestown southern suburbs, which are now reaching out towards Carrigaline, along the route of the new M28.

At Bayly, the mix of 472 units now rapidly coming out of the ground (at a rate of four completions a week) include 193 private homes for sale, predominantly three-bed semi-ds — at prices from €445,000 for mid-terraced three bed townhouses and from €560,000 for four-bed townhouses.

There’s also 98 apartments under the Croí Cónaithe scheme for owner-occupiers in the private market, along with a mix of houses and apartments (many already occupied) under Tuath Housing, predominantly cost-rental, along with some Part V homes.

The Bayly site is on Carr’s Hill/Carrigaline Road within a walk of Douglas village, past one of the entrances to Maryborough Woods, facing that former O’Brien & O’Flynn (OBOF) completed development, also facing Douglas Golf Club and has glimpses to Maryborough Ridge, where Glenveagh/Sirio have been adding a further 500 units to that OBOF-initiated major scheme.

At Cairn’s Bayly, the houses going for sale this weekend with Savills are A2-rated brick-faced and dash builds with timber framing sourced from suppliers FastHouse in Limavady, Northern Irland, which produces 2,500 frames per annum for Irish and UK builders in a 250,000sq ft factory.

Houses here are completed from start to finish in six months; 61 will be completed this year.

Buyers are getting completed homes with air to water heating via rads, fitted kitchens, white goods and built-ins, tiling and bathrooms, pretty much everything bar floor finishes.

Start prices are from €445,00 for three-bed townhouses of c1,250 sq ft, four-bed townhouses are from €560,000 and firmer prices for semi-detached, both three- and four-beds, will only be released Saturday/Sunday with the launch of the first 30 homes via Savills, with two show homes opening Saturday and Sunday from 12pm. DETAILS:

Savills 021-4271371, savills.ie