621 Howth Road, Blackbanks, Raheny, Dublin 5.
Howth Road starts in Clontarf on Dublin’s northside and meanders through Killester and Raheny before meeting the waterfront opposite Bull Island.
Number 621 is situated in Blackbanks in Raheny, just before the road meets the seafront. On this stretch of Howth Road, houses facing the road are newer than those to the rear, as the original properties were built for sea views, and over the years front gardens were sold off as sites.
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This goes to explain the long narrow entrance to number 621 but what lies to the rear is house on a 0.31 acre site with uninterrupted sea views. The fact that the site is elevated approximately 9m above sea level, gives the impression there are just bushes between the house and the sea, while deep thicket acts as a sound barrier to the traffic beneath.
Views stretch all the way from Sutton to the Wicklow Hills, taking in the nature reserve of Bull Island.
Owners Pauline and Peter Kelly have lived here for 35 years and are downsizing to a property close by.
“We have never had to close our curtains in all the years we have been here as nothing overlooks the house,” says Peter Kelly of the house which dates from 1930.
Along with the house comes a guest cottage, which has been used as a home office and billiards room, and a large conservatory with a second kitchen which the Kellys use all summer long.
There is a partially sunken heated swimming pool in the garden installed for the grandchildren, and lots of mature shrubbery.
The property stretches to 282.5sq m over two floors. It has three reception rooms and four bedrooms, all of which are en suite. There is quite a lot of wood panelling throughout – Kelly’s company Worldwood, imported wood from all over the globe before his retirement. Although the main panelling is expensive rosewood, current trends are swaying to paler walls and brighter interiors.
New owners have two options; to completely overhaul the house or start over with a new-build taking advantage of the great views and size of the plot.
Kevin Moran of Moran Builders in Dublin, estimates it will cost in the region of €122,000 for a full renovation of the existing house. For a new build, after demolition and site clearance costs of €20,000, he estimates new owners will pay in the region of €1,750 per sq m for a medium to high-end finish.
The property is for sale through Gallagher Quigley with an asking price of €1.25 million.
Fides, Sorrento Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin
Fides is at the village end of Sorrento Road in Dalkey and appears dwarfed by the two-storey period houses on either side.
The house, dating from the early 1900s, has been home to Ciaran Ryan’s family for more than 70 years. Now on the market as an executor’s sale, the house which has 115sq m of accommodation is available through estate agent Vincent Finnegan at an asking price of €650,000.
“It was a really happy home growing up here so close to the village,” says Ryan of the home he shared with his five siblings. “Our parents talked about moving quite a few times, but as it is not on an incline as many houses in Dalkey are, they always changed their minds.”
The property has been idle at least seven years and is in need of a complete overhaul. However, the location and 15m-long rear garden with a southwesterly aspect will be attractive to those in search of a site on Sorrento Road – something of a rarity.
The house is laid out with three bedrooms and three reception rooms. There is an opportunity, subject to planning, to erect a fine two-storey house, taking full advantage of the size of the rear garden. The site measures 349sq m.
“Dalkey is all about compromise,” says Finnegan. “It’s normally a garden trade for off-street parking, here you have both and the rear garden’s aspect would make a great spot for a balcony.”
Using the Society of Chartered Surveyors in Ireland (SCSI) online calculator, building a new 260sq m house on the site would see little change from €500,000.
