Throughout Ireland, its (the Catholic Church's) constituent orders and trusts, have over £3 billion worth of property. That makes it the biggest institutional owner of land and property in the country.
Religious orders own over 100 acres of open land remaining within Dublin city's precincts, including prime Southside tracts worth in excess of £1 million an acre.
The list of high profile Church property sales in recent years includes the following:
Carysfort College sold to UCD in 1989 for £20 million by the Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Charity sold Linden Nursing Home, 8.7 acres of prime land in Blackrock for £8 million in 1998
The same order sold St Anne's in Milltown, 12 acres of prime building land, for £8 million a few years before that;
The Holy Faith Order in Glasnevin sold an acre site for £5 million
No 2 Merrion Square was sold to the American College in 1998 by the Sisters of Mary Auxiliatrice for £2 million;
The daughters of the Cross of Liege sold St Gabriels House and 9.5 acres for £5.7 million.
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