Aryzta chief executive, Owen Killian has purchased number 2 Shrewsbury Road for €6.5m. This makes it the second most expensive house sale of the year.

The former Belgian Embassy was sold a year earlier for €4.6m. That means the US-based Irish investor who bought the property at that time made a tidy profit of almost €2m in 10 months. The residence is 5,500 square feet but has planning permission in place to double the floor area.

The purchase price should be no problem to the Co Roscommon man, who pocketed €17.5m for the sale of shares in the bakery company during the year. This was on top of his €5.1m salary last year.

The trophy homes market may serve as a barometer for how well Ireland’s agri-food businesses are performing and who is generating new fortunes. In the boom it was the property developers who moved here en-masse.

During the frenzy two houses either side of Killian’s new pad were bought by Derek Quinlan for an estimated €27m. One of these was sold in 2011 for about €7m and close to 40% of the numbered houses on Shrewsbury road have changed hands in the past four years.

Killian has had a pretty good year -being awarded the RDS Gold medal for Industry in November and recording sales of €4.8bn at the Swiss based bakery group last year.