Rathmines

The owners of this large terraced five-bedroom house at 12 Palmerston Road in Rathmines were set to go to auction 18 months ago but their plans changed at the last minute and the auction was cancelled.

This week the house is back on the market, and the delay may prove good for the price. Sherry FitzGerald had been quoting £1.2 million plus for the 3,500 sq ft house which is in excellent decorative order. The guide price has now jumped to £1.48 million and the new auction date is February 15th.

While some Dublin roads have slipped slightly in price in the last 12 months, Palmerston Road seems to have become even more desirable. At one time many of its large Victorian redbricks were divided into flats. Now they are being snapped up by wealthy professional couples, many of whom are pouring hundreds of thousands of pounds into renovations. Competition on the road is said to be hot as one redbrick after another gets an expensive facelift involving designer gravel, spotlit flower beds and matt black front doors. Number 12 has been fully renovated over the last 10 years and has many of the features that upwardly mobile couples are seeking.

There are two very good interconnecting reception rooms with matching fireplaces, one of them leading to a superb deck running across the back of the house. A return at the side of the house adds more space.

Off the hall is a large guest cloakroom. A sizeable room on the landing between hall and ground floors is counted as a bedroom. Above it, off the landing between the hall and first floor, is a cosy study with windows facing front and back.

The first floor has two bedrooms, one of them very large with a walk-in dressingroom and en suite bathroom. Off the top landing is a fourth bedroom and shower room.

The fifth bedroom is on the ground floor alongside a bathroom. There is also a sittingroom and kitchen and breakfast

room at this level. The breakfastroom is the larger of the two rooms, with French doors to the patio and a wide opening into the long galley style kitchen with sleek grey units and granite counter tops.

The back garden is a another strong selling point. It is long and walled and exceptionally private thanks to the height and depth of the belt of trees around the neighbouring gardens.

The garden is in two parts. There is a large formal area laid out with box and yew hedging, and beyond it is a second, hidden garden that is used for parties and has speakers mounted on the wall linked to a music centre in the house.