The saga of the sale of the Lyons Demesne estate in Kildare continues. Just when we thought the jewel in the Ryan family crown had been dispatched to an Irishman with interests in the Middle East, it turns out the buyer and vendor came very close to the door of the church last March but the marriage never went through.

Now we understand the lavish Georgian estate on 600 acres and former home of Ryanair founder Tony Ryan, which had been on the market through Knight Frank and Christies International with a hefty €30 million price tag has been taken off the market.

So near, yet so far. And it doesn’t look like the buyer was the one who got cold feet, having been prepared to pay close to the asking price.

All Knight Frank is saying is that the property is unavailable for sale at the moment following a family decision to remove it from the market.

While the appetite is certainly improving among overseas investors for Irish estates of this calibre, there isn’t exactly a queue to buy them. It may be the case that the Ryan family reckon there’s more to go in the rising market. After all, when it first came on the market in 2009, the estate which includes a 22-acre lake, a private landing strip and professional standard stables, was asking €60 million.

But the beneficiaries of Tony Ryan’s estate aren’t under any great pressure to liquidate the family’s vast fortune any time soon. Maybe it’s the case that the family would prefer to retain this showcase estate for their own enjoyment?