Brand New House For sale: "Offers Over One Euro Considered"

He built the four-bedroom bungalow on a site beside his home in Moylough, Co. Galway - partly as a hobby and as a way to provide for his retirement.

It cost him about €40,000, not including the price of the land.

Realtors say it would have sold for around €320,000 at the height of the property bubble.

But having been unable to shift it in two years of trying, Michael Dempsey (48), told his auctioneer to take down his sign and decided he was going to sell it himself.

And he insists he'll listen to any offer at all to take it off his hands, from as little as €1.

"It's a beautiful new house," he said, "It's a shame no one is living in it."

"I didn't think things could get this bad in this country, but they have and this highlights it."

He said the banks lent him ten times his income, but he loan was secured against the house he lives in, so he is genuinely free to sell it at any price he likes.

"This house to me is now a liability, I no longer consider it an asset," he said, "I'll have to insure it, paint it, keep it heated, cut the lawns."

He took an ad out in the local newspaper The Connacht Tribune saying "House for Sale", and says he had received some interesting calls including one from a "lady from Clifden ... She asked about the details of the house but after a while she said she thought one Euro was too dear! Sure what would you get for a €1?"