New homes: Dickie Rock’s field strikes gold

Scholarstown Wood is the much-anticipated development from Regency, a relative newcomer to residential homes.

The former financial director at Seán Dunne’s Mountbrook Homes, Aodan Bourke, co-founded the firm with Patricia Hinch, who worked with GE Capital for 15 years.

With the backing of Avestus Capital Partners, founded by former Quinlan Private executives Olan Cremin, Peter Donnelly, Thomas Dowd and Mark O’Donnell, they bought the 24-acre greenfield site in old Rathfarnham that is within the M50 limits.

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The site is known locally as “Dickie Rock’s field” and comprises lands that once belonged to the front man of the Miami Showband. The development has frontage on to Stocking Lane and on to the mature Scholarstown Road. When complete there will be 280 houses and 30 apartments.

The A3-rated timber-frame houses are contemporary in style and have been designed by OMP Architects (O’Mahony Pike) implementing feedback from house hunters who told selling agent Ivan Gaine, director of new homes at Sherry FitzGerald that they wanted a kitchen with room for an island, a separate utility room and a generous family bathroom that has room for a separate shower and bath.

Armed with this insight Hinch and Burke went to London to view high-end developments to get a feel for the kind of finishes being done there. The apartments at the former BBC Television Centre particularly impressed.

They insisted on modernist designs with brick-fronted facades to make them look established, Bourke explains. Ultra-white grouting contrasts with large anthracite grey windows from Munster Joinery to make the interiors light-filled.

Inside there are above-average ceiling heights of 2.7 metres and the large windows stream light into the rooms. The internal doors are Shaker-inspired.

The sleek kitchens by Kube Kitchens come with Neff appliances, Silestone countertops and the handleless wardrobes were designed by Bedroom Elegance to a spec by Hinch. The bathrooms are generous with the en suites in the larger houses having a window and Silestone sills for a more polished finish. Ventura Design consulted with the firm on the interior design of the show houses.

There are 20 houses in phase one, which launches today and includes three, four and five-bedroom homes. Prices start from €455,000 for the three-bedroom terraced houses (116sq m / 1250sq ft). There are five of these. Prices for the three-bedroom semi-detached style (which range in size from 114 to 117sq m / 1519 to 1546sq ft) start from €470,000. There are four of these. Prices for the four-bedroom semi start from €570,000 (which range in size from 141 to 143sq m / 1519 to 1546sq ft). There are 10 of these in phase one. There is one five-bedroom detached house asking €695,000 (187sq m/2014sq ft).

Of the styles available the four-bedroom semi is probably the most exciting in terms of its size and footprint – it feels like many of the older properties in the area in that it offers almost 1600sq feet of space over two floors rather than the three-floors that is now more common in new homes as planners push for higher density schemes.

The house opens into a roomy hall off which is a good-size living room whose focal point is a wall-hung electric Opti-Flame fire by Dimplex. Double doors slide open to lead through to the large kitchen, living dining room that spans the width of the house.

Like the three-bedroom terraced style there is scope here to convert the attic – future-proofing the house for expanding families meaning they can put down roots, Hinch explains.

The site was already home to numerous mature trees and landscape architect Dermot Foley has played to those strengths to make the estate feel like it has always been there, as Bourke puts it. The properties are being sold through Sherry FitzGerald.

Last February Regency launched Hollywoodrath  in Hollystown, Dublin 15, which when finished will comprise some 450 homes. Of the 22 properties in phase one, 19 are sale agreed.

In the same month it received planning permission for another scheme, on Station Road in Portmarnock where there will be 61 houses and 51 apartments.