Ladywell, a modest dormer bungalow sitting on 0.89 hectares (2.2 acres) at Corrybeg in Templeogue, Co Dublin has sold for €4.8 million, according to the property price register.

In 2013, businessman Brian Murphy, who lives on the same cul-de-sac, purchased the house for a fraction of that price.

Murphy is a veteran of the motor trade, having founded Belgard Motors – formerly one of the biggest car dealers in Ireland.

He was reported as having cannily sold his 50 per cent shareholding in Belgard in 2005 while business was booming, before the company ended up in liquidation just four years later, due to the onset of recession.

His timing of the purchase of Ladywell in 2013, and its subsequent sale in August 2016, is similarly masterful.

The property price register shows that he paid just €400,000 for the Templeogue property in 2013, however that only reflects the amount paid for the house, while it’s believed he paid closer to €2 million for the entire site.

At the impressive sale price of €4.8 million, it’s quite the return within three years – without having to lift a shovel.

The heavy lifting now appears to be the responsibility of Victoria Homes, and the developer has already begun to advertise the new development being built on the site.

It will comprise 16 large and fine looking semi-detached houses ranging in size from 191sq m to 225sq m.

Similar to existing neighbouring houses on Corrybeg, Templeogue Road and Old Bridge Road, they are generously sized homes but come with high energy efficiency and no renovations required.

First phase prices start from €820,000.

In developing Ladywell, Victoria Homes bring to fruition a development that is over two decades in the making.

Caldercourt Builders attempted it throughout the 1990s, and Derek and Noel Stenson of the now-dissolved Emerge Properties attempted it in 2007 after they bought the site for a sum of around €16 million from the owner couple who then downsized to a smaller property in Terenure. Nice work.