Handsome Leeson Street house with mews potential

If a front garden filled with precision-clipped topiary could sell a house, number 47 Upper Leeson Street would have been snapped up when it first came on the market last year. It wasn’t – and not, it is fair to assume because of an aversion to box hedging but more likely because the asking price of 1.5 million was too steep for buyers. The two-storey over basement house was for some years the offices of estate agents DNG and it is back on the market, through DNG, this time with an asking price of €1.275 million.

While it has been in commercial use (the estimated rental value is €50,000 per annum), it is likely, because of its prime Dublin 4 location and period-house appeal, its buyer will be someone looking to turn the 236sq m (2,540sq ft) property back to residential use.

Given the handsome house’s position on the busy road, the first question any buyer would ask would involve parking. As the days of these houses getting planning permission for off-street parking to the front appear to be gone, parking to the rear is important. And number 47, as a former office has plenty – about 10 spaces accessed via Wilton Lane.

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47 Upper Leeson Street: has an asking price of €1.275 million

And with so much space out the back, together with access, buyers might consider – subject to planning permission – the possibility of building a mews to the rear.

Kitchen required

The layout is two rooms at the top of the house; three at hall-floor level – two interconnecting reception rooms, the third in the return; and several rooms at basement level. There is no kitchen or bathroom – hinting at the extent of the work needed.

However, while period houses that become offices tend to lose most of their original features, not so at number 47 where the principal rooms still have their marble fireplaces, the decorative plasterwork has been maintained and the original windows, including the fine round-headed window on the landing, give it that much-sought-after period feel. Indeed the offices were clearly rather plush – most rooms feature beautiful wallpaper and thick carpeting – so it is not difficult to imagine them being lived in.

This will take a buyer with the time to go through change-of-use-planning permission, and any other permissions required, and with the money to do the work on what was once, and could easily be again a very fine townhouse – with, and it is a rare find in Dublin 4, mews potential.