Split the difference and bag an earner in Rathgar for €795,000

Situated on the corner of Frankfort Avenue and Garville Road, number 66 is a villa-style double-fronted house symmetrically divided into two separate flats. While most of the houses on this residential road have been turned into family homes, there is a case to be made for retaining the property as two apartments: an owner occupier could live in one and generate an income from the other.

The house, which was gifted to the family as a wedding present and has seen three generations of the same family live here, has gorgeous period features including fine decorative cornicing.

The apartment at hall level has been set out as a two-bed unit with the sittingroom in the bay window to the front, where there is a white marble mantelpiece; a door leads through to the kitchen with a matching design. From here there is access to the garden via a set of steel steps. The two bedrooms are on the opposite side of the hall, and the bathroom is set on the return. The stairs to garden level have been closed off but if repurposing to a family home, reopening this should not be a big job.

Good ceiling heights

At garden level there are four more rooms. These don’t enjoy the same proportions but still have good ceiling heights. The sittingroom, set to the rear, is dark, partly because the steel steps block some of its light. The two bedrooms in this unit are its brightest and it might make more sense, if the house divide were retained, to move the kitchen and livingroom to the side of the property. There is a small shower-room to the rear that certainly needs a rethink.

The house has gas-fired central heating, measures 182sq m (1,959sq ft) in total, with each unit – one rated F, the other G – measuring about 90sq m. It is seeking €795,000 through agent Lisney.

Property Partners O’Brien Swaine is seeking €985,000 for number 12, a two-storey-over-basement redbrick that is also in need of complete modernisation. Measuring 240sq m (2,583 sq ft), it has a sizeable back garden.

Lisney recently sold number 23 Frankfort Avenue, a very nicely extended mid-terrace three-bed of 188sq m (2,023sq ft), with a Paul Doyle-designed garden. It was asking €1.195 million and sold for €1.385 million.The same house had previously sold in July 2013 for €660,000.

Number 71 sold in February 2016 for €790,000 while number 53 sold for €910,000 in June 2015, according to the property price register.