The National College of Ireland (NCI) has secured £12.6 million for its lands and buildings at Sandford Road in Ranelagh, Dublin 6 - a record price of £3.3 million per acre. Many of Dublin's top house-builders competed for the college, which stands on a prime site of 3.9 acres along a private road shared by Gonzaga College and Sandford Church of Ireland National School. It was sold by tender through Hamilton Osborne King.

The purchaser is understood to be a syndicate of Dublin businessmen who are likely to develop the site with an exclusive scheme of apartments and townhouses. Prices are expected to start at around £450,000, according to Hamilton Osborne King, which is likely to be the selling agent for the new homes.

It is expected that the NCI will use the proceeds from the sale to invest in the new £31 million third level campus planned for Dublin docklands. The Dublin Docklands Development Authority has provided the college with a 1.3 acre site on Mayor Street, adjoining Citibank. The college is likely to delay the completion of the sale for at least 18 months to give it time to relocate to the docklands.

The Sandford Road land is easily the best inner city site to have come on the market for at least three years according to Pat Nolan of Hamilton Osborne King.

Given the premium price paid for the site, the developers are likely to design a scheme aimed at the very top end of the market with prices on a par with developments in Dublin 4 and the south Dublin coast. New homes on the site would be among the most sought after in the city, because of their location. Second-hand houses in the area change hands for between £400,000 and £1 million.

With the Government now advocating higher densities in built-up areas of the city, the planners may well allow at least 25 apartments and houses per acre. However, local residents are likely to monitor any development closely, given their objections to previous planning applications for this and other sites in the area. In fact, the presence of strong residents groups in the area may have deterred some house-builders from bidding on the site, which is hemmed in by private gardens.

"There are some very well structured residents groups in Ranelagh," said one agent. "It certainly is not a sleepy backwater for easy planning."