Tech bros, expats, super rich climate refugees - the new buyers of Ireland’s priciest homes

Since the social media boom of the mid-2000s, prospective buyers of high-end homes are no longer expected to be mature in age and wearing a designer suit. The rarefied market now includes jeans-wearing hipsters in runners, some still in their 20s. A younger Mark Zuckerberg comes to mind, although the man behind Meta wears cashmere these days.This is a trend associated with the super-wealthy of California and London, but has it made its way to Ireland? Zuckerberg bought Strancally Castle Co Waterford this summer for an eye-popping €51.2 million. But are other young tech barons following in his footsteps to buy Ireland’s most expensive homes?Sales reaching the astronomical sum achieved by Strancally are by no means common. Although it’s not an exact science, property professionals place Ireland’s prime market in the €5 million-€8 million range, with less frequent sales above that level falling into the super-prime category. READ MOREAn analysis of the Property Price Register shows coastal properties feature prominently among the biggest sales, followed closely by city-adjacent addresses in Dublin 4 and Dublin 6. An average of 10 homes annually have sold for above €5 million in the past decade.“We sold a substantial house down the country, probably two years ago now, to a buyer who had made a lot of money in a crypto exchange,” says Stephen Day, senior director at Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty. That buyer, an Irish man in his 30s, seems more the exception than the rule. Younger buyersBarbara Carty and David Johnson of Inhous The average prime buyer in Ireland is certainly younger than in decades past, when people would buy a trophy home at retirement age at the end of a successful career. According to property professionals, however, there still isn’t a high concentration of buyers below the age of 40.Those in the market to buy prime homes are likely to be in their 40s and have an established link to Ireland. This means one member of a couple will have been born here or have Irish heritage, says David Johnson, principal of London- and Dublin-based agency Inhous. They tend to be arriving from abroad and have school-aged children. High-net-worth clients come from varying industries, says Johnson, noting many are entrepreneurs who have sold a business. He cites the gaming, finance and pharmaceutical industries, as well as the sport and entertainment sectors.Johnson has seen people from the US, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, London and Hong Kong buying at the prime level in Ireland.Barbara Carty, head of clients at Inhous Dublin, says many buyers would be “Irish that have been [overseas] for maybe 30-plus years, coming back with good money” and buying for cash. “They’re coming from everywhere, and they’ve just done really well for themselves, and they’re ready to come back and settle here.” Given that many move with school-aged children, she says the education system in Ireland is a big draw. Private schools here are perceived to offer better value when compared to those in London, she adds.In the case of family relocation, one parent often commutes or spends a portion of their time working overseas, while the rest of the family bed down in Ireland for the school year. American money Buyers' agent Breffnie O'Kelly “My experience [with prime buyers] is that their money has been made in America,” says Dublin-based selling agent Breffnie O’Kelly. Her clients tend to be aged above 45, and are buying an additional home in Ireland with plans to spend a few months of the year here. They are driven by the political climate in the US, she says, and wish to invest some assets outside of the country. Many use Ireland as a base from which to travel in Europe.“They like us for ourselves as well; we’re not just a base and somewhere to park money. They also enjoy being here,” says O’Kelly. “It’s more a lifestyle treat for themselves rather than that they’re moving here lock, stock and barrel.”Climate has also become a factor in recent years, says Day of Lisney Sotheby’s, citing clients from Florida buying in Ireland as the heat becomes too intense there in the summer. As European heatwaves intensify, he suggests the number of high-net-worth buyers in Ireland from around Europe may increase.Coastal preferenceInniscorrig, Coliemore Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin Market participants note a shift towards coastal living at the prime level of the market since the Covid pandemic, away from Dublin 4 and 6. This suggests the sea is more important than proximity to the business district. “In any given year, not that many properties trade overlooking the sea, so when they come up, people will pay a premium for them,” says Day.This is also something that O’Kelly has noted. “If we’re going for a waterside property, we want it to have everything going for it. We want to have the views, we want to have the direct connection to the water, we want to have the finish, we want everything – or we want as much of it as we can get.”For example, Inniscorrig on Coliemore Road in Dalkey achieved a sale price of more than €14.95 million when sold by Inhous in June. The Gothic revival-style mansion with its own private harbour was reported to have been acquired by an Irish family living in the US.“Ireland, relatively speaking, is good value for what you’re getting,” says Johnson.In cities like London, he says, the market is always moving, so there are plenty of options for this cohort of buyers.“If you’re trying to compare that to Dublin, the choice isn’t there. And that’s where you’re seeing some of these properties commanding quite a premium price, because they don’t come around all that often.”Where stagnancy arises in the Irish market, with high-end properties staying on the market for a long time, Johnson attributes it to overvaluing. “Unfortunately, at this level, these guys don’t necessarily have to sell and they’ll happily sit there, and if a buyer comes along who’s maybe semi-naive to buy it, well and good, but you’re not seeing it. These buyers are very savvy.”What do the sales figures show?Beulah, Harbour Road, Dalkey - €6m Sherry FitzGerald An analysis of the Property Price Register (PPR) shows coastal properties have outpaced city-adjacent Dublin 4 and 6 in achieving the highest prime sales over the past 10 years. The appeal of the latter, however, remains strong. The PPR is a publicly accessible database that records the sale price, date of sale and address of properties sold since 2010. The register reflects payments for the principal residence and up to an acre of land. When a sale includes more than an acre of land, the value of additional land is not included.Looking back a decade, the nine prime sales of above €5 million recorded on the PPR in 2016 show a dominance of Dublin 4 and 6 addresses.Walford on Shrewsbury Road in Dublin 4 was the most valuable sale that year, with Celtic Trustees, a fund set up by billionaire businessman Dermot Desmond for the benefit of his children, paying €14.25 million. That figure pales alongside the record €58 million developer Sean Dunne paid for it at the height of the boom in 2005. Nearby, Clancool at 15 Shrewsbury Road sold for €8.76 million in 2016, with sales for 51 Ailesbury Road and 4 Elgin Road, also in Dublin 4, registered in the same year at €5.9 million and €5.25 million respectively.The only coastal property with a sales price above €5 million that year was Beulah, which has gardens that border the coastline on Harbour Road in Dalkey. The sale was registered at €6 million and was reported to have been purchased by aviation financier Douglas Brennan. Over the last 10 years, prime buyers were most active in 2022 and 2024. In 2022, two years into the pandemic, a total of 19 sales above €5 million were recorded. You could speculate that at a time when some took to playing Monopoly for diversion, high-net-worth buyers were buying and selling property for real. The importance of your home’s proximity to nature had never been more important after the prolonged period of limited movement. A desire to live by the sea is evidenced by the fact that nine of those 19 €5 million-plus sales were in coastal areas, mainly in the capital, with one in Co Cork. St Kilda: the house and its putting green are just behind the three houses at the front of the photograph; like theirs, its garden has the sea at its foot St Kilda on Sandycove Avenue East, formerly owned by the late property developer Peter Cosgrave and his family, was the highest recorded sale at €12.5 million. The sea lies just beyond the gardens of this villa-style home situated within a short walk of Sandycove beach and the Forty Foot. Three further Sandycove sales were also recorded at this level while another three prime €6 million-plus sales were registered in the seaside village of Dalkey in 2022. The sale of Constantia Farm, overlooking the town and harbour in Kinsale, Co Cork, was recorded as €5.08 million. Glenaveena House in Howth sold for €5.7 million.Last year, another fine coastal home achieved the highest sale price: Seagrange, a five-bed villa-style home overlooking the sea in Sandycove, which sold for €9.25 million, just below its €10 million asking price. Only one other coastal property joins Seagrange in the 2025 prime list of 11 homes, and that is Ananda in Killiney, which sold for €5.75 million. The second highest sale was Templeville, 44 Temple Road in Dublin 6, which sold for €7.325 million. Houses sold for more than €5m each year since 2016, according to the PPR2016: 9 sales2017: 6 sales 2018: 4 sales 2019: 8 sales 2020: 5 sales 2021: 9 sales 2022: 19 sales 2023: 13 sales2024: 19 sales2025: 11 sales Dublin 4 reappears with the record-breaking sale price for an apartment in the form of 27 The Nicholson at Lansdowne Place, which sold for €7.2 million. Two houses on Ailesbury Road sold for €7.1 million and €5.2 million. Zuckerberg’s Stancally deal tops the bill this year but the €51.2 million did not include the 440-acre estate. Iniscorrig, the castellated mansion with a private harbour at Coliemore Road, Dalkey, was sold for €14.96 million. These sales were followed by two Dublin 4 addresses – at 6 Raglan Road and Mulcaire at 40a Ailesbury Road, which sold for €10.4 million and €10 million, respectively. The leafy suburbs close to the city still retain their appeal at the high end of the market.