£5m-plus sought for Foxrock site

Dublin's leading housebuilders are likely to be the front runners for a large Victorian house on just over three acres of land in Foxrock, Dublin 18 to be auctioned on June 10th. Whoever buys Hollybrook on Brighton Road will almost certainly replace it with an exclusive scheme of either large family homes or townhouses and apartments. Joint agents, Tom Day of Lisney and Donal O'Buachalla, are quoting a guide price of £5 million-plus but this could be just the starting point on auction day as builders compete for one of the last big sites in Foxrock.

The recent sale of 16 houses for around £1 million each in nearby Carrickmines underlines the demand for large family homes in exclusive enclaves. House builders will be keen to capitalise on the demand for new houses at the top end of the market where period houses are becoming ever more difficult to find.

Although there is no planning permission on the site, it seems certain that the planners will allow a substantial in-fill development because of the new planning guidelines issued by the Government.

Hollybrook, beside the Japanese embassy and close to the junction with Torquay Road, is an exceptionally private property bounded by dense shrubberies and trees. It has road frontage of over 250 feet, and the house is set almost at the centre of the site. The property has been owned by the same family for 40 years and both the house and the grounds - including an outdoor swimming-pool - have been well maintained.

The two-storey house has a fine hall with the principal reception rooms leading off on either side. To the left is a sunny morning room, which opens through a wide archway into the drawing room. On the other side of the hall is a formal dining room with a bay window and Adam-style fireplace. A corridor leads off to the kitchen and the secondary rooms at ground floor level. The kitchen overlooks the swimming-pool and a raised terraced garden at the back of the house.

Upstairs, the five bedrooms are all spacious doubles and they share two large bathrooms. The grounds of Hollybrook are in lawn with two paddocks at one side of the property. There is an old stable yard and a number of outbuildings. Properties of this size are rare in Foxrock where many period houses have already lost their gardens to housing development. It is difficult to put a precise value on Hollybrook because it has been several years since a comparable property was sold in the area.

Last year, a site of about one acre on Westminster Road, with planning permission for a large detached house, was offered for sale at £1.5 million. The walled site was once part of Grassmere, the property owned by Dr Edmund Farrell, but had been sold separately earlier last year.

Although the price was achieved, the owners decided to withdraw it from the market and re-apply for planning permission for two houses on the site.