Back on market - with cuts of up to €500,000

Rathmines: €1.8mNine months after going up for sale, two renovated homes are on offer for nearly 20 per cent less. Bernice Harrisonreports

THE owners of 29 Grosvenor Road, Dublin 6, did just what many advised last year - when their house failed to sell at auction in May (with an AMV of €2.2 million) they took it off the market, waited for the uncertain year to be over and have now put it back on, for sale by private treaty at €1.8 million. Lisney is handling the sale.

It's a large - 237 sq m (2,558sq ft) - two-storey over basement Victorian redbrick, that was fully renovated when the current owners bought around seven years ago.

The fine interconnecting reception rooms and the wide hallway are spacious and feel quite grand due to their particularly decorative plasterwork.

There are four double bedrooms, three on the top floor, and the fourth, a large double with shower en suite, in the basement.

The top return has a small shower room, the one at hall level an elaborate granite and mahogany custom-built bar, while the kitchen is in the return at basement level.

It's relatively small but well planned with room for an Aga, as well as good storage, with additional cupboard space cleverly designed into the area under the stairs. The kitchen opens into a large diningroom. As well as the fourth bedroom, also down at this level is a guest bathroom.

New owners won't have to do much in terms of decoration, just a fresh coat of paint and all the major renovation work has been done. They may however want to rethink a recent addition - the bath right in the main upstairs bedroom - but this could easily be partitioned off and changed into an en suite. Despite the space and number of bedrooms this probably isn't one for a young and growing family because the back garden is small.

However it's a winner for adults as it is a suntrap that's been landscaped with a sophisticated mix of Indian sandstone, decking and colourfully stocked raised beds.

There's also a utility room and pedestrian rear access.

Dun Laoghaire: €;1.975m

A price drop of almost €500,000 is likely to attract fresh interest in Rosemount, an immaculately refurbished villa at the top of Corrig Avenue in Dún Laoghaire, for sale at €1.975 million through Lisney.

The two-storey house was sold at auction last May for just over €2.4 million but the buyer did not proceed with the sale. The three-bedroom house had been immaculated renovated to sell with sleek kitchen and bathrooms, a cinema room and classy decor but the market has cooled for these perfectly presented homes and the price had to be cut accordingly.

Ideal for downsizers, it's a house that looks small on the outside, but has 206 sq m (2,200 sq ft) of living space and a small town garden to the rear. There is off-street parking for one car as part of the pretty gravelled front garden.

New owners will have little do except decide how to use each of handsome, high-ceilinged rooms. The hall level has large kitchen to the front, complete with vast island and expensive glossy units and integrated appliances. Double doors lead through to a smallish diningroom with French doors leading to a pretty Vitorian style wrought iron balcon with steps down to the garden.

Across the hall, the drawingroom is a tasteful serene room with panelled walls, an inlaid timber floor. Next door, a study has an oak parquet flooring, and fitted bookshelves.

All the bedrooms are downstairs, and none is particularly large. The main bedroom has a large ensuite shower room while the other rooms share a very smart family bathroom. The cinema room could be double as a playroom or as an extra bedroom. It has access to the pretty back garden.