Carton House Hotel in Kildare is being sold with an asking price of €60m. Joint owners the Mallaghan family and Carton Development Partnership - a vehicle of property developer Paddy Kelly - have spent some €90m refurbishing the resort since 1999. The parties issued a joint statement saying they had reached "a consensual agreement with NAMA" to put the resort on the market.
Tom Barrett is director of the hotels division at Savills, one of the joint selling agents for Carton House. Mr Barrett said the hotel is the highest profile and best quality asset in the Irish hotel sector. Describing it as a "premier hotel," Mr Barrett said Carton House is a Palladian manor that dates back to the 18th century - with history dating as far back as the 11th century.
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The house was the former country home of the Dukes of Leinster. It was restored and refurbished over seven years from 1999 to when it opened in 2006 and boosts two golf courses and specialist sports training facilities which are used by the likes of the British and Irish Lions rugby team. The hotel is also a great contributor to the economy around Maynooth in Co Kildare, he added.
The Irish hotel market is now approaching a normal market and Mr Barrett said that a lot of properties are now once trading on a normal basis. He also said that there is some development happening and a few cranes over Dublin hotels can now be seen. New purchasers were investing in the properties they were buying, but now the estate agent is seeing existing owners also investing and refurbishing their properties.
Mr Barrett said a normal market will attract willing buyers and sellers. He said that are positives around the Irish hospitality industry and the Irish economy in general, but cautioned that the industry will have to keep an eye on Brexit, the country's tourist arrivals and competitiveness.
On the 9% tourism VAT rate, Mr Barrett said the rate has been very supportive of the hotel industry and he said he would like to see it retained as the industry is still very much still in recovery mode.
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