Ballsbridge/€2.75m: There's room for a mews in the garden behind a large D4 house. Bernice Harrison reports
Anyone with half an interest in property who regularly drives up Shelbourne Road in Ballsbridge must have wondered about one of its large redbrick semi-detached houses that for years now has been looking seriously unloved.
Number 2, a house at the end of a terrace on the road called Lansdowne Gardens, is in a prime location and this is clearly a fantastic house - but it obviously hasn't been lived in as a family home for some time now.
That should change in the near future because the six-bedroom period house with a 150ft long back garden is now for auction through Douglas Newman Good on October 4th with an AMV of €2.75 million.
A couple of months ago it was reroofed but that is the extent of the renovations; apart from that, the house needs just about everything.
That's not going to deter buyers - and the AMV could prove to be on the low side as apart from the location, this is a house with obvious potential.
A big selling point has to be the garden which has, according to the selling agent, a right of way. So, subject to planning permission, a mews could be built at the end of the garden leaving plenty of space for a large kitchen extension.
Inside it has 246sq m (2,650sq ft) of space spread out over three floors and not a whole lot of imagination is required to see how it could once again be a gracious family home.
The spacious hallway features some impressive decorative plasterwork over the livingroom doorway and a winding oak staircase. Off it are two interconnecting reception rooms with high ceilings, a bay window to the front and matching marble fireplaces. At the back of the house, a large bright room has a couple of kitchen cupboards but little else and a further small room that was probably a utility of sorts. A peek into the garden of the handsomely renovated house next door reveals a large extension at the back, and as well as everything else, new owners of this house will probably consider such an addition.
Upstairs there are four bedrooms and a bathroom and two further large attic bedrooms.
