£13m knockdown price for house that cost £50m in 2005

Ireland’s most expensive house, sold for €58 million (£50m) during the country’s property boom just six years ago, has been put up for sale for a mere €15m (£13m), representing a fall in value of almost three-quarters.

Aided by years of reckless lending, Irish property prices rocketed to unsustainable levels during the go-go period of the “Celtic Tiger” economy, but a spectacular bursting of a property bubble has seen prices tumble for 42 straight months amid a nationwide recession and the implosion of the Irish economy. Residential house prices have fallen by an average of 43 per cent from their 2007 peak, according to the Central Statistics Office, however the drop has been more pronounced in exclusive areas such as Dublin’s exclusive Shrewsbury Road.

One of many large red-bricked houses tucked in from the pristine, tree-lined road, the Tudor-style Edwardian “Walford” house, had a guide price of €35 million in 2005 but fetched far more when it went under the hammer.

Irish newspapers reported the property – sold in 2005 to a trust – belongs to journalist Gayle Killilea, wife of Sean Dunne, a property tycoon who bought three adjacent hotels in south Dublin in 2005 intending to build a landmark 37-storey tower.

But after being denied planning permission, he now runs a supermarket on the site, which has also dropped considerably in value.