A day in the life of the up-and-coming builder sounds pretty good at the moment.
Having woken up in his own bed in Dungiven, Co Londonderry, he hopped into his twin-engined Eurocopter 135 and alighted in Belfast to oversee the launch of his latest residential development.
“Our philosophy is to presell our developments,” he said. “For the customer, it means that they can buy at preconstruction prices. For us, it means we can work to a rock-solid building programme and cut out the speculative element.”
Having quickly sold 40 units off-plan, banking £14m (€20m) worth of contracts in the process, it was back to the chopper and on to Dublin.
Taggart Holdings, owned by 39-year-old Michael and his brother John, is beginning to make waves in the booming Irish housebuilding sector.
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Although Taggart’s main focus in the republic is on large housing developments in the commuter belt, rumour has it that the company was the underbidder on the Jurys Ballsbridge site that eventually went to Sean Dunne.
“We bid €263m,” said Taggart. “I gather he (Dunne) bid €275m with a €10m tax element, which made his net bid €265m, so we were close.”
So does he wish he’d gone the extra three million? “My attitude to everything is to give it our best shot. If we get it, we get it; if we don’t, we don’t.”
It’s not as if losing a few acres of Ballsbridge stopped the deal-making. Taggart also put in a bid for McInerney Holdings before folding up his tent. Other fish to fry.
“Between buying land, selling houses, acquiring companies and developing, I’d say we’ve done €200m worth of business in the last fortnight,” said Taggart.
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If that sounds like he is blazing his own ego, it shouldn’t.
The acquisition of Cecil M Yuill, a building firm based in Hartlepool, northeast England, accounted for €90m of his spending spree.
Taggart has an office in Manchester, where it has assembled a number of sites and is awaiting planning permission. Yuill employs 200 people and builds more than 300 units a year.
The Yuill acquisition was announced in a press release, a move that would send many of Taggart’s publicity-shy peers into a spin.
It doesn’t bother him, though. If people want to ask questions, he’ll answer. If they don’t, he won’t.
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“We’re a very open company. I find it a lot easier to say exactly the way things are and use my energy in a strategic direction rather than telling fibs or hiding behind anybody.”
Taggart is one of the new breed of northerners from nationalist backgrounds whose confidence in their own ability is palpable.
Although lacking higher education, he has that combination of competitiveness and natural intelligence that makes it appear as if he is wondering why other people get so fussed about being a success.
“I’m not going to take it (his wealth) with me,” he said. “All of us are only here for a lifetime and that’s the only chance we’ll get to use our abilities.
“As long as everyone around me, and everyone belonging to me, is all right, then that’s number one. If we built every single house in Ireland and Britain I wouldn’t change.”
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Taggart started in the building trade in London in the mid-1980s.
“It was what everyone was doing,” he said.
He had a small team working as subcontractors on site when he had to return to Ireland for “family reasons”.
In 1989, he bought a timber yard in the heart of Derry and got planning permission for 40 houses.
“We sold them all for £32,000 (€47,000) each,” he recalled. “But it was a very tough market. Factories were closing and manufacturing was in decline. The fireside wisdom was that if you could make it in the north, you would do all right in the republic, so we started to come down here in the mid to late 1990s.”
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Since then, Taggart has ridden the boom in semi-detached homes for dormitory town dwellers. Its latest offering, Rochford Manor in Trim, Co Meath, was a typical Taggart development. Featuring three-, four- and five-bedroom options, the scheme was a €30m sellout earlier this month.
Each house, of course, came complete with a corny name, such as the Druid, the Boyne or the Baron.
His bid for the Jurys Ballsbridge site notwithstanding, Taggart knows his market.
“In the republic, I still see a lot of opportunities for us in that €250,000-400,000 commuter-belt category,” he said.
“We’ve done well because we know what our customers want, which is a straightforward deal, high internal spec and a great finish.
“We have it well off to a tee now,” he explained. “We know what’s of most benefit and causes least hassle to someone buying a house.”
As he gets ready to go off in pursuit of the next deal, Taggart volunteers, uninvited, what makes him tick.
“I really enjoy finding the deals and I really enjoy doing them. But I enjoy myself too. We go to good restaurants and we drink good wine. I like to be able to call up old friends and go for a few pints,” he said.
“And that,” he says rising to leave, “is my craic.”
VITAL STATISTICS
Age: 39
Education: St Patrick’s, Dungiven
Home: Dungiven
Marital status: Long-term relationship with Jenny, with whom he has a son aged 12
Hobbies: Running, flying
Favourite film: Michael Collins
Favourite book: Air Raid — Pearl Harbor by Theodore Taylor
WORKING DAY
I GET up at 7am in Dungiven and then it’s a commute to either Belfast, Dublin or Britain. I usually go in the chopper, but I haven’t got the full qualifications yet so I can’t fly unaccompanied.
The first part of the week is usually spent updating staff in different locations.
The rest of the week is trying to see if there’s a deal to be done, meeting landowners, solicitors or potential partners.