Dublin’s cheapest house at €85k is not for the faint-hearted

Bargain home hunters may have already spotted 24 Rutland Cottages, a single-storey terraced cottage in need of complete refurbishment.

Asking €85,000, the cottage, which measures 31sq m (334sq ft), has attracted more than 17,000 views on property websites and has had some “enthusiastic first-time buyers as well as far more seasoned small builder slash developers view it”, according to selling agent, Ronan Crinion of Move Home.

When you search for properties under €100,000 in Dublin on MyHome.ie 24 Rutland Cottages is one of about 10 in that category, the others are mainly sites, which makes it the cheapest house currently for sale in the capital.

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It’s a project that is not for the faint-hearted. One of about 14 cottages set in a cul de sac off Rutland Street, the cottage came to the attention of Dublin City Council’s Dangerous Buildings Inspector in 2017 as it was open to casual entry, via front door, front window and rear door.

It needs everything done to it so you’re effectively buying a site with external walls. Under its plywood sheeting, the floor is soft and so are some of the walls but the main room, a space of just over 25sq m, has a vaulted roof with ceiling heights of more than three metres. Crinion says there is a further 1.2m of headroom above the timbered covering.

The room is also dual aspect and while overlooked to the back this makes it very bright. Some viewers were considering turning it into a two-bedroom apartment but really this space would work best as a bright, open-plan, one-bedroom cottage with a mezzanine bedroom set above and roof lights and possibly a dormer window used to bring in more light in a private way.

Shower room

There is a small return to the rear where there is a shower room. The house next door built up the return to first-floor level and doing likewise would give an ensuite bathroom upstairs. You could turn the shower room downstairs into a small kitchen or a utility room to resolve the issue of drying clothes out of sight in small homes.

The small yard to the rear is northeast facing and overlooked. Some greenery could soften its look and privacy blinds, the kind that pull up from the base of the window rather than down from the top, would shut the outside world out.You could install a staircase inside the front door where a small glass-box porch would prevent heat escaping. A kitchen could run lengthways under the stairs along the boundary wall leaving loads of living space to set around the existing open fire. The outline of its original chimney breast is the house’s only original feature.

Two doors up, number 26 sold in February 2017 for €77,500, while next door, number 23, sold for €84,345 in May of the same year. Number 21 sold for €88,800 in November 2016 and number 18 sold for €93,000 in August 2015, according to the property price register.

The property qualifies for the living city initiative tax incentive, but the deadline for all work to be completed in order to avail of the tax break is currently May 4th, 2020.

Crinion says he expects it will sell to a cash buyer. He feels banks will be reluctant to issue a mortgage on a house that needs such levels of refurbishment.