Two Dalkey seafront homes achieve record highs

Two of south Dublin's most prominent seafront properties located minutes from each other have found buyers. Beulah, on Harbour Road in Dalkey sold in recent weeks for a sum understood to be in the region of €6 million, not far shy of the original asking price when the 465sq m (5,010sq ft) property came on the market a year ago quoting €6.5million.

A fine Victorian, Beulah on 1.7acres served for years as a summer villa to Dublin’s gentry, and most recently as the family home of the late Finn O’Sullivan, founder of transport and logistics firm Irish Express Cargo.

The price achieved would indicate a return to rude good health at the upper end of the residential market given that Bartra House, a 9,149sq ft property on a similar sized site next door, was sold by businessman Gavin O'Reilly, in 2012 for €3 million to Colm Delves, chief executive of Digicel, Denis O'Brien's Caribbean-based mobile-phone company.

This represents a near quadrupling in values in the intervening period from €328per sq ft to €1,200 per sq ft. The buyers are believed to be a couple locating to Ireland with no ties to the area.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Bartra House, it's understood that Bartra Martello Tower is currently under offer at around €1.8million. The 72sq m (775sq ft) historic tower, owned and refurbished by the Stephenson family, went on the market in 2014 asking an ambitious €2 million for the highly unique one-bed property on 0.2 of an acre.

More recently the asking price was revised to €1.85 million through agent Sherry FitzGerald and planning permission was secured for a 100 sq m (1076sq ft) extension to the granite fort.

The current €1.8 million offer converts to €2,322 per sq ft – a sum that leaves even Beulah in the shade, and something of a record for a one-bed property.