Ireland's priciest road just got cheaper with financier Derek Quinlan selling at a level that will shock neighbours, writes ORNA MULCAHYProperty Editor
FINANCIER Derek Quinlan, who fled the country in the early stages of the financial crisis, is selling his Dublin home on Shrewsbury Road.
Number 6, a large five-bedroom semi-detached house with a swimming pool in the garden, is being offered at a price that may shock the neighbours – €7.5 million, less than half the price of another house for sale on the road, owned by Black Tie’s Niall O’Farrell.
Quinlan, who moved to Switzerland last year, has instructed Sherry FitzGerald to sell the Edwardian house, which he purchased in the mid-1990s for around £1.5 million (€1.9 million).
He owns two further houses on the road, numbers 1 and 3, which he bought at the height of the boom for a reported €27 million. He got permission to convert them into a 21,000sq ft mansion, but this plan is unlikely to ahead and the houses are now thought to be worth little over €6 million.
Single-digit millions are a big comedown for the road, which has just 22 homes, the most expensive of which, Walford, sold for €58 million in 2006 to Gayle Killilea, wife of developer Sean Dunne. The house has remained unoccupied since. Denis O’Brien subsequently paid close to €30 million for a large detached house on the road that is now his home.
Sean Dunne has since moved out of his modern home, number 20A, which he’s reportedly rented out to the South African embassy. Meanwhile, property developer Paddy Kelly has let his home out to the Chinese embassy.
Niall O’Farrell has a second house on the road that is also awaiting redevelopment. Meanwhile, a house belonging to the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, priced at €25 million last year, has now been withdrawn.
Quinlan’s house, Derrymore, is in mint condition and extends to about 465sq m(5,005sq ft). Three spacious interconnecting reception rooms lead off the hall, which itself is large enough to accommdate the owner’s Steinway baby grand piano. A double drawingroom has steps leading down to a grand diningroom with wall panelling by Queen Elizabeth’s nephew Viscount Linley.
This room connects through to the back of the house, where there is an extended kitchen-cum-family room with patio doors leading to the 150ft garden.
Leading off the kitchen is the family gym-cum-playroom, and there is also a large utility room with access to a cobbled yard at the side of the house. A smaller store room is dominated by a safe, and there is also a wine cellar which was not open for inspection.
The first return has a very large study with wall-to-wall bookshelves and a marble fireplace. Leading off it is an office.
The first floor has a pleasant en suite bedroom on one side of the landing. On the other is the main bedroom suite with a large bedroom commanding a view of Shrewsbury Road and a second room fitted out as a dressing room with fitted wardrobes and a central dressing unit. A luxurious en suite bathroom has a bath big enough for two.
There is a third bedroom on the next return, with the two remaining rooms on the top floor, where there is also an attractive bathroom, a walk-in, fully shelved hot press, and a store room designed to take suitcases.
