Kinsale holding sold for nearly three times the going rate of farm land

BY EMMA CONNOLLY 

A 16-ACRE farm on the Old Head of Kinsale has sold for €480,000 – or €30,000 an acre. 

That’s nearly three times the current going rate for agricultural land, according to Clonakilty auctioneer John Hodnett who managed the sale of the farm which included a bungalow and outhouses and which, combined, made €680,000 at private auction. 

The average price for farm land is currently around €11,000 an acre, according to Mr Hodnett, however, the property’s location at Ballymackean, just five minutes from the Old Head and 10 minutes from the gourmet town, and the quality of the land, attracted strong nationwide interest as well as the UK, the US and the Middle East. ‘This was all about the location and the excellent quality of the land. However, the final price was still a major surprise,’ he said. 

Having been on the market for several months, the vendor decided to sell through a private auction some weeks back where bidding started at €430,000 with four bidders. 

After lively bidding it sold for €680,000 to Cork auctioneer Michael McKenna, who bought it  in trust for a client. 

John Hodnett valued the house and outbuildings at €200,000 (it was built in the ’50s and needs considerable renovation) and the land at €480,000.

Land sales in the area have been brisk since around October 2016 since milk prices picked up, he said. 

‘We saw a lot of activity with land sales this year in the area and would have sold a considerable amount of land to mainly dairy farmers. It’s mainly been local farmers buying land locally,’ the auctioneer said. 

He said the three under-bidders for the land at Ballymackean – based in Dublin, New York and the Middle East – were still interested in acquiring land in the Kinsale-Garretstown area.