The site is adjacent to the Mullingar General Hospital, on the Longford Road, within reach of the town's retailing core, soon to be enhanced by a new 25,000sq m shopping centre being built by Bennett Construction.

Full planning permission has been received on the site for a scheme designed by John Fleming Architects, of 61 apartments, nine duplex apartments and five medical centre suites. Sixty surface car parking spaces will be provided in addition to 39 spaces, which will be dedicated to the medical suites.

These suites are likely to attract strong interest from medical professionals because of their proximity to the hospital. There is also potential to link the suites directly into the grounds of the hospital, subject to the necessary permissions "The future of Mullingar as a satellite hub to Dublin has been firmly secured with the opening of the new N4 motorway linking Mullingar to the M50, " says Mark Reynolds of Hamilton Osborne King. "This new link has removed at least 20 minutes from the commute time to Dublin and is going to give Mullingar a substantial edge over other midland towns such as Athlone and Tullamore."

Full details including all planning information and drawings are available from Mark Reynolds at Hamilton Osborne King or by contacting Aidan Egan or John Shaw at Egan Auctioneers.

PROPERTY EXHIBITION COVERS ALL INTERESTS

PROPERTY exhibitions have become an annual feature of the market, but what are the benefits of these massive events for the novice, first time buyer?

Sherry FitzGerald will host their National Property Exhibition on Saturday 21 January 2006 in the Mansion House, displaying everything from new housing schemes, to second hand homes, holiday homes, commercial and investment properties. Triona Gorman, countrywide director for the group, says the real bene"t for someone new is that they can meet experts in the business face-to-face.

"You could argue that the web makes everything accessible, but with an exhibition you can go directly and speak to someone who knows a specific area really well in terms not only of prices, but accessibility, local amenities and really just give a better idea of what sells there. Exhibitions are ideal, particularly for the "rst time buyer, to get an overview and to see every type of property.

For the investor who may be less likely to be locationspecific, it's also a more direct way to see everything rather than wading through pages on property websites.

For any buyer, there's something to be said for seeing properties in a more detailed way than just viewing them on a computer screen."

Particularly informative are the seminars held within the exhibition which can take buyers step-by-step through general trends, good locations and preparing property properly for sale.

The Sherry FitzGerald exhibition will travel to London on Saturday 4 March, and, for the very first time, to New York on 22 February. According to Philip Sherry, there are an estimated 700,000 Irishborn people living in Britain and a further 2.5m Britishborn people with at least one Irish parent. There are an estimated 44m IrishAmericans in the US.