Home on Ireland's Priciest Road to Sell for 19% Discount

(Bloomberg) -- Irish developer Paddy Kelly's home in Dublin's affluent embassy belt is being sold for 8.1 million euros ($9.2 million), almost 20 percent below the asking price.

Kelly, whose fortune was wiped out in the 2008 property crash, said only one serious bidder emerged for the house on Shrewsbury Road close to the U.S. embassy in Dublin. The house is being sold as part of a loan workout with a lender, according to the businessman.

The five-bedroom property, which includes a tennis court, had been rented to the China's ambassador in Ireland in recent years.

Home prices in Dublin's best districts fell 1.7 percent in the 12 months through September, according to broker Knight Frank. Nationally, prices in August rose at the slowest rate in nearly two years, Central Statistics Office figures show.

Investors have been increasingly wary of Irish homebuilders as the market shows signs of slowing down. Shares in Glenveagh Properties Plc are down 28 percent this year while rival Cairn Homes Plc has fallen 27 percent.

The Irish mortgage market is likely to grow at a slower rate than previously forecast this year, Conall MacCoille, economist at Dublin-based securities firm Davy, said in a research note Thursday.

“Recent out-turns have been a little weaker than our previous projections,” he said. “There is also a risk that Brexit uncertainties will temporarily hold back housing market activity next year.”

--With assistance from Peter Flanagan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Neil Callanan in London at ncallanan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Harris at hharris5@bloomberg.net, Josh Friedman, Dan Reichl

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