Rule the roost in Howth with room to develop

Thormanby Road, which leads from Howth village up to the Summit, is one of D13's best addresses, but the housing stock, and therefore prices, vary hugely. Number nine, for example, a three-bed terraced property, 120sq m in size, boasting sea views and within the village boundary, sold for €515,000, according to the property price register in February, on an asking price of €545,000, through agent Youngs. Contrast that with Carnalea, formerly Rosbeg, a 488sq m detached property on 1.62 acres of land that sold off-market in December 2015 for €5 million, a price of €3.07 million an acre. Its new owner is hoping to get permission to build a superhouse, a two-storey-over-basement property of 882sq m that would span almost the full width of the site.

Lindisfarne, number 44d, sits somewhere in the middle of these two price extremes and, at first glance, at an asking price of €1.8 million through agents Savills, appears to be a high value for a rather ordinary three-bedroom detached bungalow hidden from the road by a long driveway.

Standard-looking

Secreted behind a high hedge, the three-bedroom bungalow, while well-located, is pretty standard-looking – until you walk through it and out to the rear garden and realise that it boasts 1.06 acres of bucolic countryside. The L-shaped site is home to several rabbits in hutches, numerous chicken runs and a pair of stables that house two horses.

It would be a wonderful place to grow up and for those with deep enough pockets they could upgrade the existing house and make that dream a reality.

But, being so close to the village, the Dart line and schools, its real value is most likely in its development potential, and at about €1.698 million an acre, it’s almost half the price of that paid for Carnalea, which faced south.

The current owner bought the property for €735,000 in 2011 and it first appeared on the Property Price Register in October 2012.

Planning

Back then the property already had planning for three detached single-storey houses to the rear, having previously been amended from a permission granted to build four detached properties.

While the owner imprved the three-bedroom house, adding a lovely, bright, vault-ceilinged eat-in kitchen with glass gable wall, and upgraded the dual-aspect livingroom, would-be buyers will be scrutinising planning permission and the drone footage to get a better feel for the site and what views the single-storey structures will have across the Howth Special Amenity Areas buffer zone that abuts the land.

There is a decent-sized garden to the front that is south-facing and hidden from the road. Planning allows for the reconfiguration of the bungalow, demolishing part of it, including the garage, to create a through road to the houses to the rear. One wonders if the houses, when built, will have sea views and what priece they might command. For context, Cosgrave’s luxury new-build houses at Thormanby Hall, just up the street on the other side of the road, are asking from €1.475 million each.