Claim Sean Dunne still has interest in Ireland’s most expensive house

An appeal against plans to redevelop Ireland's most expensive house, bought by developer Sean Dunne and his wife Gayle Killilea Dunne for €58 million in 2005, is being heard by An Bord Pleanála.

Walford, an Edwardian house on an almost two acre site at 24 Shrewsbury Road in Dublin 4, was last year sold for €14 million to Cypriot-registered Yesreb Holding Ltd whose owners have not been disclosed.

However appellants against the plan to renovate and extend the house, and build four new houses in its grounds suggest Mr Dunne may still have beneficial ownership of the property.

Yesreb is seeking to alter and extend the 546sqm house to 854sqm.

To the rear of the house, a new development of four detached houses, each of 608sqm, is proposed around a shared private space.

The houses are to be three storeys over a basement, with the top storeys set into a pitched roof.

Extensive new landscaping and tree planting, as well as widening of the driveway, is also planned.

Dublin City Council last March granted permission for much of the development but included a condition reducing the number of new houses to three.

Yesreb is appealing that condition, while a number of Shrewsbury Road residents are appealing the development in its entirety.

Mr Dunne’s link to the property only came to light last February when he told a meeting of creditors he had gifted his wife €58 million to buy Walford, a property that, nine years after that purchase, remains the highest price ever paid for an Irish house.