A Dalkey downsize so good the owners bought in twice

When Henry Murdoch calculated the cost of downsizing to an apartment development with an annual management fee of €2,500, he reckoned that what he saved on the running costs of his four-bed house – heating bills, insurance, other occasional expenses – pretty much balanced the cost out.

In 2015, he and his wife Davida bought a two-bed apartment with sea views in Dalkey as an investment. The couple, then approaching their eighties, had lived in their suburban Glenageary home for 45 years and hadn’t planned to move. “But as I was furnishing the apartment, I got to love it and thought – why wouldn’t we move? The move was horrendous, but in the end, well worth it.”

They were very happy with their decision – so why are they now selling the 75sq m (807sq ft) apartment? (It's priced at €575,000 through Sherry FitzGerald. )

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4 Kilmore, Bailey View: the views across Dublin Bay from the apartment’s balcony

Murdoch had grown up near water in Killaloe, Co Clare and has always loved “waking up in a warm secure apartment to the sound of nearby waves and a fantastic view of Dublin Bay”. So when an identical apartment – number 10 – located even closer to the sea within the Bailey View development came up for sale last year, the Murdochs bought it – “and it’s definitely our last move”.

Number 4 Kilmore, which had been upgraded before they moved in, is on the first floor of Bailey View, a gated development built in 1985 on Harbour Road, a short walk from Dalkey’s Bulloch harbour.

Accommodation comprises a good-sized living room with a Lamartine electric fireplace and floor-to-ceiling glazed doors opening onto a balcony with enough room to sit out and enjoy views across Dublin Bay to Howth. There are more views from a floor-to-ceiling bay window in the breakfast room side of a smart galley kitchen.

The two bedrooms, both off the entrance hall, are doubles. The main bedroom has built-in wardrobes and another floor-to-ceiling bay window with sea views between buildings in the next door Bartra development. It also has a fully-tiled en-suite shower room. (There is a separate fully-tiled shower room off the entrance hall.)

Bailey View is very well insulated – each block has been wrapped “as if it was put in a sleeping bag. We only put the heating on for an hour a day in the winter”. The apartment block also has a lift.

Henry, a retired barrister, chair of the National Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation and author of several law books (plus two books about his childhood in Killaloe) advises other downsizers to forget about bringing all the furniture from their old house to an apartment, but to bring a few things that will link it to their previous home. There are paintings of boats and sea in his apartment, reflecting his continued love of sailing.

Where people are downsizing to an apartment scheme he also recommends checking out in advance the Owners’ Management Company (OMC) of a development, specifically to ensure that it has a good sinking fund and no bad debts, as is the case with Bailey View.