PLANS are being made for a new 50-unit housing development at Tullyvarraga, Shannon.
With the property market recovering for some time now, developer John Walsh believes prices are going to increase, making such developments sustainable once again.
“I hope to have planning there within 12 months and it should be ripe after that. We would start developing some time in the middle of next year.”
He plans to put a total of 50 residential dwellings in place, 10 detached, 24 semi-detached and 16 apartments.
While he feels current prices are generally not high enough to justify new building, he feels this will change. He also has an idea of what properties at the Tullyvarraga site should reach when they are eventually built.
“There is still probably a bit left in the market for it to reach a sustainable building level. Prices for a three-bed semi at €210,000 or €215,000 would be rock-bottom. That’s the level it would need to be and it’s not too far off the mark for new houses, with what you get in terms of energy rating.”
Mr Walsh expects to invest €10 million in the development. He feels major centres are going to see increases in prices, which will result in greater demand in places such as Shannon.
“I personally believe that the likes of cities will overheat in terms of prices again and push people out to the larger towns. I believe there is a need in towns like this.”
He bought the Shannon site last year and has also been active in Killaloe over recent years.
“I bought a ghost estate in Killaloe and we sold 27 houses there in the last couple of years. We started a new phase of houses and we got planning there for 35 houses. We launched 12 houses late last year and we had a full sell out of them.”
ByOwewn Ryan
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.