7 May 2013: Due date for filing paper LPT returns

28 May 2013: Due date for filing LPT returns electronically.

As if you have not registered it will impede the sale of your property. For more information please go to: www.revenue.ie

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The Mayfair International Realty network is composed of over 100 of the finest British independent estate agents, with more than 300 offices throughout the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, with a further 150 offices across the globe, in locations such as New York, Miami, Washington DC, Barbados and Toronto.  London based Mayfair International Realty is synonymous with quality, integrity, experience and customer satisfaction. One Mayfair broker was established as far back as 1750 and many of the firms go back several generations within the same family, just as Charles McCarthy Estate Agents do.

“We consider being part of Mayfair International Realty as an essential move to guarantee that our clients’ properties reach the widest possible market,” says Maeve McCarthy, principal of Charles McCarthy Estate Agents. “We are now working in a global real estate village. The international real estate investor is a reality. Our aim, working with Mayfair International Realty, is to bring the global investor to our marketplace.”

The nationalities of the Charles McCarthy Estate Agents’ buyers reads like a world atlas. The realignment of property values in the Irish Republic over recent years makes it a fantastic investment destination for overseas buyers.

“We are seeing more buyers than ever before attracted to West Cork from all over the world, and particularly from the UK and USA,” says Maeve.

Charles McCarthy Estate Agents has now joined Mayfair International’s global real estate network.  “The marketing of our clients’ properties will receive a clear benefit from this exposure to a global market,” said Maeve. “During the past 40 plus years our company has gone the extra mile for our clients.  I am delighted to say that now, as part of Mayfair International Realty; we are going an extra 393 miles and expanding the gateway to the world for our valued clients.”

Of particular importance is the internet site that offers properties exposure to the global market and uploads to other premier UK based websites. The highly prominent website (www.mayfairinternationalrealty.com) provides a worldwide portal for luxury properties. Charles McCarthy Estate Agents enjoys the unique benefit of being the only West Cork broker whose properties are uploaded to the website of Country Life (www.countrylife.co.uk). Country Life is regarded as the leading UK magazine for luxury real estate. Over the past one hundred years Country Life has been the finest place to advertise the very best country houses, estates and important town houses in the UK and Europe and, over the past few years, throughout the globe.

The post Charles McCarthy Estate Agents Join an Exclusive Global Real Estate Group appeared first on Charles McCarthy Blog.

West Cork is almost a global brand, promoting its food, its relaxed way of life, walks and breath-taking vistas

Apart from its indigenous strengths for local and Irish buyers, it has also had a draw for Europeans for several decades, and it’s as multi-cultural a spot as you’ll find anywhere on the island of Ireland.

One set of buyers who’ve long had a love affair with west Cork, are the British, who had effectively been priced out of the market during the boom years of our Celtic Tiger; but now are accounting for a significant percentage of activity, especially in the more scenic coastal locations such as Baltimore, Glandore, Union Hall and Roaring Water Bay.

Most sales are to people buying holiday homes with a view to retiring here. The attractions include competitve prices, a low rate stamp duty, and the rate for sterling. These buyers want rural properties with space, sea views if they can get it but — most of all — they are looking for peace and quiet.

West Cork gets a large proportion of traders-down from all over this country and from further afield, especially those seeking a more pastoral life , with its spectacular finger-like peninsulas unmatched by any other part of the island, and many are just over an hour’s drive of Cork airport too. Non-nationals and even Irish ‘blow-ins’ make a strong contribution to the community, and to local economies.

Read more details about United Kingdom holiday home market.

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The post Round-Up of Sales & Leases for 2012 appeared first on Charles McCarthy Blog.

Bing may have Killarney, but tonight, I had Skibbereen.

I was making my way back from the wet and soggy fields of West Cork and decided to get a latte. On the way into town, I noticed that strands of lights had been strung across the streets. Since everything was looking so cheery, I decided to grab my camera when I left the car.

Sipping my wonderful latte, I wandered the busy streets waiting for it to get a bit darker. As I walked along, the first thing I noticed was a man and a donkey. Odd. Even for a Saturday night I thought.

The post A recent blog post about Christmas in Skibbereen appeared first on Charles McCarthy Blog.

for further details go to:

http://www.charlesmccarthy.com/530064/The_Moorings_Glengarriff_Cork

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Dunmahon House is a wonderful property set on c.2.5acres. Currently a family residence  it is also adaptable to many other uses such as a; Retreat Centre, Spa, small Boutique Hotel, Cookery School and/ or Restaurant. Guiding at €900,000.

If you require further details please do not hesitate to contact me or please go to:

http://www.charlesmccarthy.com/524073/Dunmahon_House_Bantry_Cork

The post Dunmahon House, Kilcrohane, West Cork appeared first on Charles McCarthy Blog.

BRITISH buyers are starting to return to Ireland as prices in the Emerald Isle hit rock bottom and the strength of sterling means they are finding they can afford a coastal dream unattainable in many parts of the UK.

West Cork, almost a separate county in its own right, has miles of rugged coastline strikingly similar to Cornwall and Devon. Festooned with picturesque ports, bays, inlets and harbours, the area has seen an influx of English buyers according to Maeve McCarthy of estate agent Charles McCarthy, based in Skibbereen (www.charlesmccarthy.com).

Ms McCarthy said: “No doubt the property market has gone through a cataclysmic recession, on average property has fallen by 50 to 60 per cent across the board, but we are finding that West Cork is holding value better than other areas. “A lot of people are coming over from the UK, especially London. We estimate that 65 per cent of our sales are to this market because there is value again and sterling is quite strong.”

The agent’s last two high-end sales have both been to British bankers but if it is cheap deals that you want Charles McCarthy has plenty of those too.

“Last month there were properties sold ranging from €40,000 to €4 million,” Ms McCarthy said.

The best value may be properties with a coastal aspect and you won’t pay anything like what you would in the West Country of England. Moreover, with flight times of just an hour to Cork plus a transfer of no more than 90 minutes, buyers find they can be in their holiday cottage almost as quickly as they can spending hours crawling down the M5.

Currently the agent has a four-bedroom house with detached two-bed cottage at Poulnacalle at €650,000. Built in 1996 the coastal property, with two acres of land, has outstanding views of the Ilen Estuary and Cape Clear Island in the distance. The water frontage access can be developed to enable boat launching.

At €295,000 buyers looking for coastal property could hardly do better than 5 Crookhaven Cottages, a conversion of the 19th century homes built for the workers on the Fastnet lighthouse.

Restored and renovated in the 1990s the three-bed property, which has a shared access to a private slipway, is being sold fully furnished.

Near the pretty harbour village of Glandore, Pat Maguire Properties (www.patmaguireproperties.com) is offering Fuchsia Lodge at €250,000. The new three-bed property is located at the entrance to the village and has views from the upper rooms over the harbour, a sun patio and parking.

It’s not only holiday home buyers who are drawn to the attractions of this area. Others are settling down too, inspired by the artistic and cultural scene, the landscape, the friendliness and the food.

“People come here for the good life, it’s a much slower pace of life than in metro areas,” said Ms McCarthy. “It’s an easy place to put down roots.”

Kitty Sissson and her writer husband Joe Horgan, both from the UK, moved to West Cork in 1999 and have never looked back. Now with three children, including Lily, Grace and Frank, they have extended their cottage near Clonakilty and restored an outbuilding to provide a holiday let.

She said: “We are able to live a rural lifestyle that we almost certainly couldn’t afford in the UK. Our children are growing up in a safe, beautiful area, eating food from the garden, and are surrounded by an ever-growing menagerie of pets which roam round our ‘Irish acre’.

“They live outside much of the time, scaling our trees to dizzying heights, horse riding and braving the Atlantic all year. In short they are having a totally different experience from our own city childhoods in London and Birmingham, and they love it. “

Ireland has attracted many writers, musicians, artists and film-makers, offering generous tax exemptions, and although these are now capped the legacy remains.

Celebrity names drawn to the West Cork area include Jeremy Irons, who bought Kilkoe Castle near Ballydehob in 1998 with his wife Sinéad Cusack. It is one of their seven homes.

“I spent six years and much more on it than it is worth but I never regret it. I feel a great affinity for the place, as a lot of English people have done,” the actor has said.

A close neighbour is film producer Lord Puttnam, who bought his home outside Skibbereen 20 years ago and now commutes weekly to London. He recently launched Ireland’s first masters degree in organic horticulture, which will be based at Liss Ard, a local estate with a stunning country house hotel where there are plans to eventually develop a series of holiday cottages with lakeside views.

The recession has put those plans on hold but guests staying at the newly refurbished hotel will certainly have their appetites whetted by the location.

Liss Ard’s manager Arthur Little said: “Fortunately West Cork escaped the planning blight that hit other parts of Ireland.”

Ms McCarthy cautions buyers looking for rural homes that green field sites are now heavily protected since the excesses of the boom. The best option if you are looking for a bargain rural home is to extend or even rebuild.

“Some clients want old cottages to knock down so they can build on the footprint. You can also sometimes extend to the rear without planning permission provided there are no restrictions. All the details are on the West Cork planning site (www.corkcoco.ie.).”

An example of a rural bargain which the agent has on its books is a three-bed cottage with large garden at Reenmurragha priced at just €125,000.

Richard Way, editor of the Overseas Guides Company, said typical buyers taking advantage of the strength of sterling and depressed property market were 50-plus retirees and semi-retirees.

He added: “The property market in Ireland appears to be at or close to the bottom. One agent, Gordon Hughes, reported this week that currently 70 per cent of his clients are English.”

Source: Daily Express

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Substantial two-storey residence in a wonderful location with magnificent views over the countryside and forestry to the mountains in the distance. Five bedroom & two bathroom.

http://www.charlesmccarthy.com/523739/Killangil_Castletownshend_Cork

The post New to Market, Castletownshend appeared first on Charles McCarthy Blog.

Price Guide €150,000

Licknavar is a townland just on the outskirts of Skibbereen town, most known for being the home of Skibbereen’s 18 hole golf course and also its’ proxmity to Lough Hyne nature reserve. we have a few houses on the market in this area.

Price Guide €220,000

This is a sought  after location because of its proxmity to Skibbereen, in that it is rural but not too rural. also for golfing entusiasts you do not have to far to go to the putting green.

Price Guide €270,000

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