High-spec Foxrock scheme from Moran Park Homes

A new infill development of seven detached family houses in Foxrock is under construction by Moran Park Homebuilders, a company headed up by Joe Moran.

For decades Moran’s Manor Park Homes was one of the country’s biggest housebuilders. But size and longevity did not protect it from a spectacular bust and it went into receivership in 2011.

Over the years it had evolved into a family firm, and two of the Moran children, Adrienne and John, are back working with their father building up the new business.

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While Joe takes something of a back seat, the siblings are very much hands-on at Pembrin Wood, a small new-to-market infill scheme in south Dublin. It’s not their first venture – Weaver’s Place in Blackrock, a development of just three houses, sold last year.

Showhouse

The Pembrin Wood showhouse is the first the Morans have opened since 2008 – a time line that tells its own story – and on its first open day the two younger Morans were on hand, answering viewers’ questions and anxious for feedback.

“We were a volume builder but this is not a volume market,” says John. “We used to close [sell] 500 houses a year,” adds Adrienne, “so this is very different for us.”

What is also different is the significant step up in quality. Manor Park was best known for starter homes, large estates with three-bed semis that had good but often basic finishes.

The detached, four bedroom, A-rated family homes in Pembrin Wood are firmly at the luxury end of the scale. At 144sq m-198sq m they are large, mostly two-storey houses with top-end finishes.

Two bedrooms have en suites fitted with Villeroy & Boch sanitary ware and all four double bedrooms have fitted wardrobes.

The well-designed kitchens are in solid tulip wood – painted a soft grey in the showhouse – topped with Carrara marble worktops and fitted with Smeg appliances including an integrated wine cooler.

The layout is attractively old-fashioned. There is a study – or perhaps a playroom – on one side of the hall. On the other the two reception rooms interconnect, the rear room leading into the large, bright, open-plan eat-in kitchen and dining area with space for a good-sized table. Double doors open on to a patio area paved with sandstone.

In a clever space-saving design likely to be copied by casual viewers in their own homes, the washer and dryer are tucked into the inner hall leading in to the utility room.

The Morans bought the Foxrock site ready to go, with planning permission in place, says John Moran, explaining why such sites are in hot demand from all builders. Banks, he says, will not lend on a site that has no planning permission but will make part funding available on a site that will yield cash flow in a relatively short time frame.

Tight time frame

The time frame at Pembrin is tight: the showhouse is open, and Adrienne anticipates that all seven houses will be ready to move into by Christmas.

The Morans tweaked the original, much plainer design so that the houses are now redbrick with granite cills framing the windows.

Six of the houses are two-storey four-beds and there will be a three-bedroom bungalow likely to be in high demand given the number of potential downsizers in Foxrock.

The development gets its name from a 1970s house that was on the 1.3-acre site which has access through Beech Park Road on the Foxrock Church side of the N11.

Tree-lined avenue

Permission was given for 10 houses with Moran Park building seven and the original owner retained a portion of the site to build three houses for family members.

Access to the site is via a long, mature, tree-lined avenue, but there is a compromise: while the houses are detached they are not “Foxrock detached”, which typically means houses that are far from each other, on standalone grounds.

The Pembrin south-facing back gardens have a good-sized patio area and a section under lawn but they are small relative to the size of the houses.

The Morans point out that there are two “pocket” parks adjacent to the site which will solve the football kickaround issue.

Felicity Fox is the agent and the price for the two-storey four-bedroom houses in Pembrin Wood is €1.1 million.