Number 68 Northumberland Road is a fine Victorian redbrick house with valuable amounts of off-street parking and rear access on to Lansdowne Park. For many years, the 10-bedroom house, Northumberland Lodge, has been run as a guest house and appears in several guide books, including the Michelin guide to Ireland.

However, selling agent Simon Ensor of Sherry FitzGerald suggests that while the house is being sold as a going concern, and has been valued as such with a guide price of £1.35 million, it may also appeal to those seeking a family home close to the city centre. "It is a very elegant house that has been well-maintained and not butchered in any way. The reception rooms are intact and there is a good back garden, although some of it has been given over to parking."

The property, which is scheduled for auction on March 31st, has what a lot of house hunters at the top end of the market require - a Dublin 4 address, lots of accommodation and handsome period features.

It stands two-storey over garden level and has just over 3,600 sq ft of living space. Granite steps lead to the front door, which is accessed through an original tiled porch.

There are two good reception rooms at hall level, a drawingroom (currently used as the diningroom) and a livingroom. The first of the bedrooms is also at this level, and there is also a guest lavatory off the hall. The entire hall level has oak floors.

The well fitted kitchen-cum-diningroom is located on the return and it has access to the garden. There is also a utility and office area at this level. There are three guest bedrooms on the first floor and a further two bedrooms on the first and second returns. The remaining two en suite bedrooms are at garden level, along with two bedrooms used by the owners. One of these has an en suite bathroom while the other has an en suite shower room. There is also a large private sittingroom at garden level. The entire house is in very good decorative order. The off-street parking is a valuable bonus so close to the city centre. There is room for about four cars in front, with further parking to the rear.

The b&b rate at Northumberland Lodge is around £80 per night for a double room.

Prices on Northumberland Road have risen sharply in the past 12 months. Recently, a family house at Number 67 fetched £1.3 million through Lisney.

When 32 Lansdowne Road last came on the market in late 1994, selling agents Lisney quoted a pr-auction guide price of £280,000. The house, which had been in the same family for over 40 years, needed extensive refurbishment but it did have its original coach-house with full planning permission to convert in to two news houses.

Guide prices then were no more dependable than they are now and the property fetched a good deal more under the hammer - £351,000 to be exact.

Now the Victorian two-storey over basement house, which faces the Berkeley Court Hotel, is set for auction at the end of the month. And yet again Lisney are the selling agents. The guide price of £950,000 is, again, conservative, given the strong demand for well-located period houses close to the city centre and within easy reach of the DART.

The most recent property to be auctioned on Lansdowne Road was a similar period house at Number 58. It was bought by the IRFU for £1.53 million at a Sherry FitzGerald auction last October. Its pre-auction guide price was £850,000.

Number 32 has changed considerably since 1994. Refurbished to a very high standard, it is now run as a guest house where rooms rates are around £70 per night.

The coach-house has been converted to two news houses but these are not included in the sale.

The rest of the walled back garden has been cobble-locked to provide extra parking space for three of four cars.

Currently the house is laid out as a seven or eight-bedroom house and several of the bedrooms have en suite facilities.

The hall level has two lovely rooms, the front facing drawingroom - used as a diningroom - with its elaborate cornice work, marble fireplace and two big windows looking out on to Lansdowne Road, and the former diningroom, which is now a bedroom.

There are four bedrooms on the first floor, two with en suite facilities and attractive marble fireplaces.

The ground floor has two more bedrooms, as well as a very large fitted kitchen, a laundry room and a small staff bedroom.

Lisney is planning to market it both as a commercial premises and as a potential family home. It will auction the property on March 31st.