Northside or southside: what will about €470,000 buy?

15 Dromeen Avenue, Beaumont, Dublin 9: €460,000

Pierce and Eileen Noone have lived in their home at 15 Dromeen Avenue for more than 30 years and in that time they have made it their own.

“We’ve been very lucky,” Pierce says. “We’ve raised four children happily here. And yes, we’ve extended two or three times, putting in extra bedrooms, and an office at the top.”

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34 Mount Drummond Square, Harold’s Cross

The original house was built in the 1950s, in a quiet residential street. Sitting midway between the Swords Road and Malahide Road, it is handy for DCU, shopping centres, Beaumont Hospital and the airport. It's a good area, and at €460,000 with Sherry FitzGerald, you have value for money here.

In addition to the four bedrooms upstairs – one en suite – plus family bathroom, you also get a generous hallway, sitting room and living room, with kitchen and breakfast room downstairs.

There are French windows from the living room, while the kitchen also opens up to the garden, Pierce’s favourite part of the property. It’s what he will miss most when the couple move, now that their children have grown up.

At nearly 40m (130ft) in length and with lawns, mature planting and a patio area, the garden has made many family memories over the years. “It’s beautiful in the summer months, it isn’t overlooked, and you can eat out. Anyone with young kids would love it.”

In all there’s 139sq m (1,496sq ft) of accommodation, not including the attic conversion.

This adds up to a strong option for a young family and, if it takes your fancy, you could always follow in the Noone’s footsteps (subject to planning permission of course) and continue extending. There’s plenty of off-street parking at the front – which means the garage is ripe for turning into another living space.

34 Mount Drummond Square, Harold’s Cross: €475,000

While €460,000 will buy you four bedrooms in Beaumont, on the other side of the river and beyond the Grand Canal, a similar amount will stretch to two bedrooms at Mount Drummond Square. From the front, number 34 looks like it’s a tight site, with the end-of-terrace tucked in on a pocket triangle, but this is deceptive, because the garden fans out behind.

Nice as it is inside, it’s this generous space to the rear that swings it to something out of the ordinary.

When the current owners bought the house, which is now for sale with DNG for €475,000, in 2005, they completely gutted it, and have done a very nice renovation job, opening up the back with a very sweet kitchen extension. Now the house is 80sq m (860sq ft), with an open-plan living space leading through to the kitchen, with French windows out to the garden downstairs. There are two bedrooms and a large bathroom with separate power shower and roll top bath upstairs. The attic is also part-floored.

“We chose the bathroom over the idea of a third bedroom,” the owner says. “We obviously weren’t thinking about kids then.” Now that the family has grown, they’re moving south, to Wicklow.

The main bedroom is spacious and bright with windows, through which only trees are visible. “A friend said, ‘it’s just like being in the country’.” There’s also plenty of wardrobe and storage.

This area, just above Harold’s Cross Bridge, was once an orchard. Now Mount Drummond is a peaceful residential spot. Number 34 has a patio, trees, mature planting and a lawn. It’s fully enclosed too, so kids and dogs can play in safety, and you’re just a short walk to Rathmines. Slightly smaller, No 46 is also for sale, with Sherry FitzGerald for €320,000; while €299,000 would get you number 74, which needs a little work, on sale with Castle.