Land Development Agency buys Dundrum objector’s house for €2.15m

The Land Development Agency (LDA) paid more than €2 million to buy a dormer bungalow in south Dublin to settle a High Court case by the owner that threatened to further delay almost 1,000 new homes at the former Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum. The public body charged with building homes on State land bought the extended property at Friarsland Road, Goatstown, in the spring. The deal was completed weeks before Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) bought four Dartmouth Square houses near the city centre for more than €9 million to settle MetroLink litigation – the first in a series of TII transactions that could lead to purchase of 15 homes on the square. Taoiseach Micheál Martin is scheduled to visit the former Central Mental Hospital site on Friday for an event marking the start of building work to develop 934 homes for the LDA and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. The project has suffered years of planning and legal delays.READ MORE[ LDA closes in on €21m deal for UCC’s IMI campus in SandyfordOpens in new window ]Official data on property prices and ownership shows the LDA acquired the Friarsland Road house for €2.15 million on April 30th. The house backs on to the grounds of the former hospital. Residential property price register data suggests the last home to be sold on Friarsland Road changed hands for €1.085 million in 2023. The market has been rising in the three years since. Mark Leonard, himself a developer, initiated judicial review proceedings in February against An Coimisiún Pleanála and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to challenge planning permission in December for the LDA project. Leonard withdrew the case a fortnight later, before receiving High Court permission to pursue the action. [ LDA agrees to buy what will be Ireland’s tallest buildingOpens in new window ]A note with the 2025 LDA annual report, lodged in the Dáil on Thursday, said the agency “acquired a residential house in Goatstown, Dublin 14” last April. No further information was provided.Replying to questions, the LDA did not provide Goatstown address but said it acquired a house “at market value as part of a legal settlement”.Data from Táilte Éireann, which maintains the official land register, shows the unique folio for the Friarsland Road house was updated in June to show the LDA taking over ownership from Leonard. Cork solicitors O’Donovan Baker, who acted for Leonard in the High Court, were asked whether they or their client had any comment on the deal. They had no comment. LDA chief executive John Coleman told an Oireachtas committee in 2025 that delays from an earlier High Court case against the scheme added “at least €30 million to the estimated delivery cost”.That previous case, in which Leonard was plaintiff, was conceded in 2024 by An Coimisiún Pleanála predecessor, An Bord Pleanála.