Vacant Iona Hotel in Rosslare sells for over €3m at auction
The vacant Iona Hotel building in Rosslare Strand has been sold for more than four times its original guide price, achieving €3.36 million at an online auction last Thursday.
The disused hotel on three acres, was purchased by a Dublin solicitor on behalf of a client, and was one of four properties owned by the same local family, in the centre of the seaside village, which were placed on the market last October.
Before Christmas, two of the sites including the White House, a detached two storey residence in need of refurbishment on 0.3 acres, and the Donkey Field on 0.6 acres, with frontage to Strand Road, sold for €531,000 and €752,000 respectively, in an online auction.
The Iona Hotel with a large frontage onto Strand Road, originally went up for sale with a guide price of €850,000 and was later guiding at €1,750,000.
‘We were guiding at a minimum starting price of €1,75 million and it opened at that and went from there in 145 bids with six bidders involved’, said Wexford auctioneer John Keane, joint agent for the property with DNG McCormack Quinn.
‘My clients and everyone connected with it were more than happy with that. We were expecting to get a good price’, said Mr. Keane.
‘The property is on three acres in a superb location. Rosslare Strand is a very popular and sought-after area.’
The site of the hotel which has not been in use for many years, was described in the auctioneering blurb as ideally suited to a residential mixed use or commercial development.
The largest property among the four auctioned Rosslare sites is a 9.85 acre parcel of land at Burrow Road, adjacent to Rosslare golf course, which went to online auction on December 29 and was withdrawn at €1,050,000. It was later sold privately for a larger amount.
The original guide price of this site, with frontage onto a lane and access to the beach across the golf course, was €350,000. It was described as having ‘tremendous further potential’ and greatly exceeded the asking price.
The original asking price of the White House in Strand Road was €175,000 while the guide price for the Donkey field, adjacent to the Iona Hotel, was €125,000 - in the end, the two properties realised a combined total of almost €1.3 million.
Mr. Keane said it would unusual for four prime sites to become available at the same time in Rosslare which is regarded as a very desirable residential, holiday and retirement village.
He said there was tremendous local, Irish and UK interest in Iona Hotel site and there was also keen interest in the other lots.