Blank canvas for €1.15m in Dartry on generous grounds

A semi-detached house on Dartry Road, Dublin, in need of a complete overhaul comes with a big price tag that reflects its location. Number 43 is a pretty standard 1930s four-bed with 145sq m (1,563sq ft) and a decent-sized garden for sale through DNG seeking €1.15 million.

It is located in a neighbourhood that generally commands high prices – number 39 Dartry Road sold for €1.44 million in 2017, and number 41 went for €1.275 million in 2010.

Rugby star Johnny Sexton lives nearby in an Edwardian redbrick and another neighbour is Bank of Ireland chair and former Paddy Power boss Patrick Kennedy, who set post-boom records when he bought a house around the corner on Temple Road for €10 million in 2016.

Number 43 Dartry Road has been in the hands of the same family for over 50 years, and this is an executor sale. Current accommodation includes two interconnecting reception rooms downstairs with 1930s Art Deco-ish fireplaces, a smaller family room off the kitchen and upstairs, two bedrooms at the front, two at the back.

Architect Jonathan Bennett of Extend – a residential practice with offices in Ranelagh and Dalkey – says it would cost about €120,000 to update the basics on the original house, including installing new windows, flooring, rewiring, re-plumbing and insulating.

Extension

New owners are then likely to build an extension that could cost anywhere from €350,000 “if they were budget conscious”. As with a house on Garville Road, he reckons that a total spend of €500,000 could do a very good job.

Bennett would propose building a two-storey extension where the garage is now (while retaining a side passage); upstairs the two bedrooms at the front and back could be extended, with walk-in wardrobes and en suites added. Downstairs a classic big glass extension would wrap around the back, opening up the ground floor of the house.

This would still leave plenty of room for the lawn in the roughly 60ft by 30ft back garden. There’s also good room for parking to the front off busy Dartry Road.