BRIGHTON ROAD €850,000; BRIGHTON AVENUE €795,000:Two typical Rathgar houses are on the market. One needs work while the other has been refurbished, but both have 43-metre gardens, writes BERNICE HARRISON

13 Brighton Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6

Description: Former family home now in need of upgrading

Agent: DNG

A FIVE-MINUTE walk from Brighton Road is a very different proposition for buyers. Number 10 Brighton Avenue is a much smaller house – a two storey three bed with 136.6sq m (1,470sq ft) approximately, but it is in walk-in condition having been refurbished and extended before the present owners bought four years ago.

The terraced red brick – which has a 43-metre back garden – is for sale by Sherry FitzGerald for €795,000.

The new owners did a little more updating of their own and decorated in a smart, neutral style – so new owners are unlikely to even bother repainting.

Changes to the hall included new French oak timber flooring but it still has its decorative plasterwork and original hall door.

There are two reception rooms with open fires – the rooms don’t interconnect – and the back one opens directly into the well-laid-out extended kitchen area.

There’s also another door into the kitchen from the hall. A glazed roof running the length of one side of the extension lets light into the back reception room and the kitchen.

There’s plenty of room for a large dining table and the kitchen has been fitted with maple units topped with granite. Double glazed doors open out into the garden.

Off this is a utility room with its own door to the garden. At this level too, is a showerroom.

Upstairs there are three bedrooms. One runs the width of the house to the front, the second is at the back and the third is in the back return.

The bathroom – which is surprisingly large for the house with a separate shower and bath – is also in this return.

The garden is narrow but very long and divided into three levels. It’s very pretty and well kept, lined with mature trees and shrubs and with a vegetable garden and sheds at the back.

There is no rear access and parking is on street on Brighton Avenue.

10 Brighton Ave, Rathgar, Dublin 6

Description: Refurbished and extended three-bedroom house

Agent: Sherry FitzGerald

BRIGHTON ROAD is lined with large Victorian houses and it has become one of Rathgar’s more popular roads, in part because of its proximity to the village which is now thriving.

Number 13 Brighton Road is in the same style as many of its neighbouring houses – red brick, deep bay windows, two storeys at the front, three at the back and set well back with a good-sized front garden – unusual in Dublin 6 where postage-size railinged patches tend to be the order of the day.

The back gardens tend to vary in length but this house has a strong selling point in having one of the larger gardens at 43 metres, and there is rear access so there could be parking for one or two cars without impacting in any significant way on the mature garden.

It has been in the same family for more than 50 years and the owners are now downsizing from what is, at 213sq m (2293sq ft), a very large house. It is for sale at €850,000 through Douglas Newman Good, a price that even in this market indicates that new owners must be prepared to modernise.

The family divided and extended to suit their needs – something that new owners may want to reverse to make this into the five bedroom family home it would originally have been.

A single-storey extension was added out the back to provide a one-bedroom granny flat complete with living room and galley kitchen.

It’s hard to see this being retained as it seems the natural position for a large family kitchen.

At hall level there are two good-sized interconnecting reception rooms with original features – marble fireplaces, sash windows and the like.

Upstairs the layout gets complicated with the top of the house divided into two units. The partitions could be ripped out to make four or five good-sized bedrooms with a large family bathroom and a couple of en suites.

These houses are protected so planning permission will be required for the work – but once renovated this would be a very roomy, well located family home.