A terraced house in East Wall that looks tiny on the outside but opens up into a sizeable two-bedroom home, has been sold for €615,000 – €90,000 above the asking price.
Number 107 Church Road, Dublin 3 first came on the market in April when a review of the property on irishtimes.com became one of the most popular stories of 2017. The house had been virtually rebuilt by builder Adrian Richards of Claremont Construction who had bought it in June 2015 for €137,500.
Closing the sale on December 22nd, estate agent Owen Reilly tweeted “this is a record price for East Wall and reflects a neighbourhood on the rise!”
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Beyond the modest facade, number 107 has an impressive interior. Richards, extended it by adding a two-storey extension, bringing the floor area up to 192sq m/2,066sq ft. He told The Irish Times that he had spent €200,000 on the refurbishment.
The house features a formal sitting room to the front, a bright westerly room with a large window and an open hearth. To the rear of the ground floor is a large open-plan kitchen, dining/living room, which has an internal courtyard to bring light into the middle of the building.
In the working part of the room, Richards installed a handleless kitchen from Ikea and wood worktops from Abbey Woods in Baldoyle. Floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors open out to the east-facing back garden, which has a patio, with the rest laid out in lawn.
Upstairs there are two generous double bedrooms. The master is to the rear and has a shower en suite bathroom.
To the front is a third room lit by roof lights, but because it is just one inch shy of the ceiling height required by building regulations to call it a bedroom, it isn’t listed as a bedroom. Nonetheless it is a valuable asset to the house, offering another room for a tenant to enjoy should the buyer wish to avail of the tax-free room-to-rent scheme to help with the mortgage.
Richards has over two decades experience in renovating houses. His most recent project in East Wall was 23 Hawthorne Terrace, playwright Seán O'Casey's former home. It was purchased in November 2013 for €115,250 and a year later was back on the market through agents DNG asking €375,000. Six months later, in May 2015, it was registered as sold for €350,000, according to the Property Price Register.
Church Road runs through the centre of the East Wall neighbourhood and has a variety of semi-detached and terraced homes. Most recently, number 69, a three-bedroom semi-detached that had been asking €295,000 through Sherry FitzGerald, was sold for €310,000, according to the Property Price Register.
