Turnaround time in secluded Dún Laoghaire cul-de-sac

When Steven Van der Berg bought number 7 Beechwood Grove last November he paid €675,000 for it.

He never intended to live in the four-bedroom cul de sac semi. Instead he moved in his team, refurbished it and put it back on the market in jig time.

Van der Berg flips houses. He doesn’t like using the term developer, though. He says he doesn’t borrow money but uses his own capital to buy a property.

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“I do a house in eight weeks,” he explains.

“I renovate, reinsulate, replace the widows and put in a new kitchen and bathrooms, moving the property from an E, F or G Ber rating to a respectable high C or low B rating,” he says.

He has seven men on his team and subcontracts out the plumbing and electrics.

If an ordinary house hunter were to do the same job to the same standard it would cost them more, he argues.

“If you buy one of my houses you get a fantastic property done up to the nines.”

His first project, 8 Islington Avenue in Sandycove, was a period property in 10 flats that he bought for €400,000 in October 2011 and sold for €950,000 in July 2012, according to the Property Price Register.

At any given time he has four to five projects on the go: generally there’s one on the market, one he’s currently working on, one he’s just bought and one he’s trying to buy.

Inevitably obstacles can arise along the way, in particular when neighbours object to planning applications.

In general, he avoids properties that require planning, preferring to stick to extensions of less than 40sq m.

While he sounds like just the man to oversee any home renovation project he doesn’t like working for clients because he reckons delays and changes mean a job usually takes double the time it would when he is completely in charge.

Selling a property is a slow process too, and it can take between three and five months, he says.

He has just closed two sales. Number 81b Grosvenor Lane in Rathmines, was asking €725,000 and has just been sale agreed through SherryFitzGerald while Number 20 Farmhill Road, Clonskeagh, which was asking €799,000, has been sale agreed through Lynam Auctioneers.

Van der Berg says he will wait until the money is in the bank before embarking on his next purchase.

Beechwood Grove, a four-bedroom, double-fronted, souped-up semi, is one of six to eight houses he renovates per annum, a job the former landscaping contractor has been doing since 2011.

In it he reconfigured the layout slightly, installing duck egg blue units and limed oak floors in the kitchen, renovating the downstairs toilet, adding a small den and decent utility as well as cleaning up the internal side passage.

Three double rooms

The smell of new carpets and fresh paint filters throughout the 157sq m (1690sq ft) property which has been staged for sale and is asking €850,000 though agents DNG.

Upstairs, three of the four bedrooms are doubles. All are big enough to install fitted wardrobes but don’t yet have storage.

People who consult the Property Price Register think he’s making a fortune, Van der Berg says.

“But I could put up to 25 per cent of the purchase price in the property.

“What I do is see potential,” he says. “I love taking a wreck and turning it around.”