The Co Wicklow home of Gerald Kean, a high-profile solicitor whose clients have included Woody Harrelson and Prince, sold shortly before Christmas, according to an entry on the Property Price Register.
The price achieved by Kean is listed as €1.45m on the register, although it is noted that this does not represent the full market price of Drayton Manor, his 11-bedroom mansion set on two acres.
Earlier this month Kean told RSVP Live, a gossip website, that he had decided to take the property off the market after his new girlfriend, Sonya Valadi, had moved in.
“I’m not selling my home any more,” he is quoted as saying. “I was selling it because it was too big to live in on my own, even with lots of friends. Sonya has moved in, so I’m not selling it now.”
On the price register’s website, it notes there may be errors in the data it publishes, which is compiled from information filed with Revenue for stamp duty purposes. “The data is primarily filed electronically by persons doing the conveyancing of the property on behalf of the purchaser and errors may occur when the data is being filed,” it cautions.
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The register also notes that in some transactions, including Kean’s, the price shown does not represent the full market price of the property concerned. “For example, the price declared may reflect the retention of an interest in the property by the previous owner, or the fact that a part or fraction only of the property is being purchased,” it said.
In other cases properties may be declared as purchased “in exchange for other property, stocks and shares, etc”. The register also does not reflect the value of land attached to large country estates, recording only the value of the house and one acre in its published register.
Kean, who did not respond to calls or texts last week, placed the house on the market last year with an asking price of €3.75m. In October selling agent Knight Frank said the house had been withdrawn from sale. The house covers 1,638 sq m and includes a gym, cigar room, traditional-style pub and a 52-seat cinema. The price register lists it as having sold on December 20, 2017.
Late last year Kean told The Sunday Times that a High Court debt action against him by Revenue had been struck out. “We agreed Revenue would carry out an audit, which showed my tax affairs are fully in order and a credit for overstatement is to be applied in my favour,” he said.
In October, Kean settled a debt action taken against him by Cabot Asset Purchases, a debt-purchase company, which had bought a portfolio of personal debts from Ulster Bank.
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In a 2016 interview Kean described himself as “broke”, saying he had lost heavily on property investments, including the purchase of his office on Upper Pembroke Street in Dublin.
@colincoyle