Honey pot or money pit? Four ambitious fixer-uppers

St Anne's and Woodville, The Hill, Monkstown:  €950,000 and €1.1 million

When approached from The Hill, one of south Dublin’s best-loved addresses, passersby might easily confuse Woodville and St Anne’s for one large single dwelling. In fact the two substantial Victorian houses are semi-detached, with one facing The Hill and the other facing the Packenham Road junction.

The houses are believed to have been designed by prominent Victorian architect William Caldbeck, who lived at St Anne's up to his death in 1872. They now require complete refurbishment. Both St Anne's and Woodville are being offered for sale asking €950,000 and €1.1 million respectively through joint agents Knight Frank and Herbert Property Services. They can be purchased separately or as a single lot. If sold separately, each property is likely to be converted to impressive single family homes.

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The view from 9 Breffni Terrace, Breffni Road, Sandycove, Co Dublin

St Anne’s appears to be a somewhat easier conversion, given that its layout is currently a three-storey house above a basement apartment.

At 315sq m the house is unlikely to be extended, however buyers may opt to incorporate the basement into the main house by adding a connecting staircase. The basement could be converted to an open-plan kitchen and living area with access to the garden.

St Anne’s has period features such as a grand Victorian staircase, cornice and ceiling roses - with views across Dublin Bay from the top of its feature tower. The home’s sizeable garden is all to the front of the house and has off-street parking.

Woodville is currently laid out as five apartments set out over four floors. At garden level there are two own-door one-bedroom apartments, a two-bedroom apartment at hall level and two further one-bedroom apartments on the top two floors.

All of the units are currently occupied, and may therefore also appeal to investors.

To the front of the house is a garden with pedestrian access. To the rear is a northwest-facing garden with a double garage fronting onto Packenham Road. While it would appear to make sense from the exterior for the two houses to be merged into one incredibly grand home, it was noted by a conservation architect for the current owner that merging the two houses internally would be “impossible” due to the location of Woodville’s full-height staircase against the centre party wall and due to the two houses’ floors being at different levels.

For property developers, the possibility of purchasing the two properties together for a multi-unit scheme might appeal.

It wouldn’t take much imagination considering the owner applied for planning permission in 2007 for such a development, however buyers would now need to make a fresh planning application. The previous plan proposed six apartments ranging in size from a 67sq m one-bed to a 210sq m four-bed triplex. In addition to the apartments, other proposed works included landscaping, the provision of six parking spaces (one per apartment) and the construction of a two-storey mews with parking to replace the existing double garage.

Even when little was selling elsewhere, homes on The Hill achieved strong prices. The three houses directly across the street, Belmont, Ard Sonais and Reduit, sold at the bottom of the market in 2010 and 2011 for prices of between €2.2 and €2.5 million. These houses are quite different, being semi-detached with substantial front and rear gardens – however at 0.36 acres in size, the combined site of Woodville and St Anne’s is just as large as those houses’ gardens.

– Aidan Murphy

9 Breffni Terrace, Breffni Road, Sandycove, Co Dublin: €1.45 million

A house built in the 1860s on a terrace of 15 in Sandycove, Co Dublin, must be one of the last in nearly the same condition as it was over 100 years ago. Number 9 Breffni Terrace, unlike most of its neighbours, was never carved up into flats and bedsits or refurbished. It was last bought in 1948 and a member of the family who owned it lived there until two years ago.

The 307sq m (3,304sq ft) house, now being sold for €1.45 million through local agent BK Earley, needs complete refurbishment. On the plus side, nearly all the original period details – sash windows with working shutters, marble and cast-iron fireplaces, elaborate cornicing and centre roses – remain, largely undamaged.

However, new owners will have to install central heating, new wiring and plumbing and repair damage to the roof: water has seeped into some of the upstairs ceilings. After that, the three-storey over basement house – which is listed – will need total redecoration.

Agent Thom Burke-Kennedy estimates it would cost about €300,000 to do basic structural work and install a new kitchen.

An architect who did work on one of the other houses on Breffni Terrace says he would guess that a budget to fully refurbish this protected structure should be €400,000 approximately, “depending on the standards required and subject to a close inspection”.

The imposing Victorian houses on Breffni Terrace have long front gardens and are set well back from the main Dún Laoghaire-to-Dalkey road. The house is described as four-bedroom plus. Currently, there are two reception rooms plus what was the kitchen on the first floor; three bedrooms and a bathroom on the second and another bedroom and toilet in the return at the top of the house. The basement is clearly what was servants’ quarters.

The most imposing room is one on the second floor at the front, currently described as the main bedroom, that spans the width of the house. In spite of the dereliction and the black patches in part of the ceiling caused by water damage, it is easy to see how this could be reclaimed as a livingroom: it has ornate coving and a ceiling rose, a marble fireplace and two tall sash windows with views of the sea.

The basement has a separate front and rear entrance, and could be renovated as a separate apartment. Number 9 is also one of the only houses on the terrace that has not built a mews house at the bottom of the garden, so planning permission could be sought to do this. As things stand, the long and private back garden has a garage at the end, accessed through Elton Court off Castlepark Road. New owners could also look for planning permission for parking in the front garden.

Both of number 9’s neighbour houses have sold in the past few years: number 8 sold fully refurbished for €2.4 million in 2010; number 10 made a surprisingly low €907,500 in 2012.

– Frances O’Rourke

Riversdale House, St Ann’s, Ailesbury Road, Dublin 4: €1.3 million

A large house described as “a former embassy on Ailesbury Road” creates an image that is quite different from Riversdale House, an unusual property for sale through Mason Estates for €1.3 million.

The period two-storey detached house has been a long-time rental and has been an embassy and there is access to it from both Ailesbury and Anglesea roads.

It is the location that is unusual: Riversdale House is within the St Ann’s apartment development and whatever way that land was carved up when the scheme was built, the house ended up with no garden of its own, so buyers of this house get a couple of car-parking spaces outside their front door and a right of way to get to their property, but little else in the way of outdoor space. There is pedestrian access via a door in the wall that skirts the exterior of St Ann’s. The interior accommodation which includes six bedrooms – including two charming attic rooms – as well as very fine reception rooms and a good-sized kitchen would make it an appealing family home, however many buyers in this category looking for a Dublin 4 home with its own private garden are unlikely to be interested.

It is also close to a busy traffic intersection so noise might be a consideration. Others though, especially investors, looking for a large property – it has 290sq m ( 3,120sq ft) – in a secure location in a well-kept upmarket development will see the potential.

With its pebbledash exterior, Riversdale House looks much more recent than its 1830s origins when it – or at least a version of it, it has clearly changed over the years – was built and used by Arthur Morrison, the lord mayor of Dublin.

The impressive granite obelisk in the island in the road and visible from some upstairs windows in the house is dedicated to him. There is an annual service charge of €1,200.

– Bernice Harrison