DNG Cyril Burke manage 100 shops and apartments in Mayo's county town
By Tom Gillespie
AFTER nine years operating as property advisors under the franchise of DNG Burke Connolly Maloney, Cyril Burke has gone solo when his two partners exited the company.
And last June, Cyril Burke, a member of Mayo County Council and a former chairman of the authority, moved to Linenhall Street, Castlebar, and launched DNG Cyril Burke.
But Cyril, from Gradogue, Ballyglass, was not always in the property business.
He started out selling building materials in Heiton McFerron’s in 1985 after doing his Leaving Cert.
Cyril told me: “My father had died that year. I was to go to college and I got a place in Galway to do engineering, but I didn’t go as my mother was at home on her own where we had a farm.
“I started farming and I did the summer with the Board of Works in Partry.
“A lot of the lads I went to school with went to America and England and a few of us got work in the beef unit in Castlebar Bacon Factory. I was only about six weeks in the factory when a job came up in Heiton’s shop. I spent about a year in the shop and then I went on the road as a sales rep. It was a great experience dealing with builders from 1985 'til the burst in 2007.”
Cyril, a former chairman of the BMW Assembly, got an auctioneer's licence in 2004 and in 2013 he set up a company called Premier Estates Maloney selling local and foreign property.
Cyril added: “I was chairman of Mayo County Council in 2012/13 and at the end of my term I saw the opportunity to take the franchise for Douglas Newman Good (DNG).
“Along with Tom Connolly and Michael Maloney, we took the franchise under the name DNG Burke Connolly Maloney.
“Some of the foreign property went well while more of it didn’t. At the time we picked capital cities where we thought we can’t go too far wrong but when Layman’s collapsed it brought everything down, bands, band shares and for small punters like ourselves we were swamped.
“During the bust we dealt with a lot of receiver properties. A lot of fellows came to me who were in negotiations with banks and had to put their properties on the market.
“In the period from 2013 to 2019 we were very busy. I was a bit nervous taking on the receiver property because we were dealing with properties belonging to people and it was very sensitive. But I took the line that receivers won’t be always around but people will.
“I had met with the property owners first, found out what their situations were, and then I got a handle on the receivers to see where they wanted to go with the properties, and to find the best solutions in most cases.
“We dealt with an awful lot of properties around Castlebar and people ended up happy enough with their outcomes. That stood to us later on when people got reestablished again.”
Cyril said for the last two years Tom Connolly had been talking about exiting from the company and that took place earlier this year. At the same time Michael Maloney, who is an agricultural consultant, had been busy dealing with about 300 farmers, so they all decided to go their own way.
Cyril went on: “I changed the name to DNG Cyril Burke and decided to move to Linenhall Street in June into the premises of Barney Kiernan who had decided to work from home.
“With a staff of four we manage up on 100 units - shops and apartments - in Castlebar, which we built up over a period of time. We do a good bit with pensions, pension funds and a lot of valuations for banks and probate.
“Last week we got the sale of a site that has been approved for planning for 75 houses on the Rathbawn Road which we will sell with the planning.
“This time last year we would not have a property on the market a week. We had sold properties in a week, maximum two weeks. Then the war broke out and materials got more expensive, labour got tight and then people got nervous and with the run up to the budget there was a lot of talk about a recession coming and during July and August things became very quiet.
“Now what we have found is that property prices have levelled off. A number of sales fell through, maybe 15 per cent, but we have them all sold again. Rents are very high at the moment but I think they will level off as well.
“I think what we will see for the next 12 months is a levelling off but I don’t see any dip. There is such a shortage of property. We see it now again if we get a good house in a decent location there are several phone calls on it right away and the bidding starts.”
He continued: “Auctioneers have taken cognisance of the market and so have home owners and they have become more realistic about the price. People are not rushing in like they did before. They are looking around.
“The recession swept an awful lot of developers with it and there is only a handful of developers around now and it is still hard for them to get funding from a bank from a developer’s point of view.”
DNG Cyril Burke is located at Linenhall Street, Castlebar, and can be contacted on (094) 9027300, (087) 6891821 or email cyril@dngburke.ie.
Do you have a story to tell about your business? If so, Tom Gillespie would be delighted to hear from you. Get in touch at (087) 9680780 or gillespietom49@gmail.com.
This is no ordinary house
A THREE-bedroom, mid-terrace house in Castlebar, part of a streetscape which was erected by Lord Lucan over 100 years ago, has just come on the market (pictured).
The dwelling on Spencer Street is now on the books of estate agents DNG Cyril Burke, writes Tom Gillespie. But to me, this is no ordinary house because it was where I was born almost 73 years ago.
According to Cyril Burke, the property has fantastic development potential.
He said: “The property itself is in need of renovation and updating, but it has enormous potential, boasting a large site to the rear.
“The property, with off-street parking, consists of circa 74 square metres, has a traditional layout, consisting of an entrance hallway, living room with open fireplace, three bedrooms, bathroom, and kitchen.
“The property is exceptionally well located, within walking distance of all amenities.
“This property offers the prospective buyer an excellent opportunity, to renovate to one's own taste to use as their own home or alternatively as an excellent investment opportunity.”