Room to improve on Merrion Road for €2m

A semi-detached 1930s four-bed needing modernisation on Merrion Road, owned by one family since the mid-1970s, comes to the market with a price tag that reflects its location. No 104 Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, is across from upscale Shrewsbury Road and close to but not quite opposite the British embassy. The 248sq m (2,673sq ft) house on 0.2 acres is for sale through Knight Frank for €2 million.

The owners are hoping to get planning permission to build a mews house at the end of the property’s very long garden, as many of its neighbours have. But that should still leave a fair bit of garden for whoever buys the house, says one of the vendors: there has always been a hedge dividing the garden, and you could never see to the end of it, he says. A Google Earth look at the property shows what neighbours have done, building mews that open on to Shrewsbury Park.

A video of No 104 show a spacious house that appears to be in dated but good condition. The redbrick, which has a distinctive triangular front and leaded windows, is screened from busy Merrion Road by lots of foliage: it has an arch over a front porch, with the front door opening into a good-sized entrance hall. Accommodation includes a large drawing room on the left and a dining room on the right with a bay window.

There’s a study behind the drawing room, opening into a conservatory; the kitchen, with pine units and terracotta-tiled floor, opens into an L-shaped breakfast room/family room. There’s also a decent-sized utility room off the breakfast room and a downstairs toilet. Upstairs are four double bedrooms and a family bathroom: the main bedroom has fitted wardrobes and an en suite.

Both the conservatory and the family room, both of which have tiled floors, open into the back garden: this has a patio, lawn, high hedges and lots of mature shrubbery. There’s room to park three cars in the gravelled front garden. It is within walking distance of Sandymount and the shops and pubs in Ballsbridge.

Several doors down, Bartra Property has been given planning permission to build a five-storey co-living development on the site of Cedar Lodge, a detached former guesthouse at 98 Merrion Road.