New homes: Larger houses in smaller terraces, from €369,000

Developer Francis Rhatigan re-entered the Irish property market 16 months ago with Dalriada, at the foot of the Hellfire Club in Knocklyon, Dublin, just beyond the M50 limits.

The scheme sold well and Rhatigan’s marketing manager daughter, Anne-Marie Drohan, says it taught them that the demand was there for larger houses with more parking spaces. They’ve put this knowledge into practice in a new development, Abbot’s Grove, which is situated just up the road from Dalriada.

Designed by Duignan Dooley Architects (DDA), it consists of three- and four-bedroom houses designed in small terraces of three so that most of the houses have side access.

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There are seven three-bed terrace houses for sale, each 104sq m (1,122 sq ft) and asking €369,000. The layout in these features sliding, glazed pocket doors between the livingroom and the large eat-in kitchen so that light can filter through from one room to the other even when you want to shut out ambient noise. The contemporary kitchen units, designed by Cawleys Furniture, come with composite stone counter tops. The bedrooms have wardrobes lined in oak by the same firm.

[CROSSHEAD]End-of-terrace houses[/CROSSHEAD] There are nine end-of-terrace three-bedroom houses, each 111sq m (1,197sq ft) and asking €384,000. The difference here is that the kitchen-diningroom is roomier and the layout includes a utility room.

There are three detached four-bed homes in phase one, each 140sq m/1,510sq ft and asking €425,000. These are double-fronted three-storey properties with a kitchen-diningroom on one side of the hall and a livingroom on the other.

Two of the four bedrooms have en-suite shower rooms with the master located on the second floor, where a corner window showing gorgeous green hills is the main feature of the space.

While the bathrooms are as per the showhouse and feature Twyford sanitaryware, kitchen appliances are not included in these sales.

The showhouse at Abbot’s Grove has been fitted out by Optimise Design and includes plenty of pops of colour as well as clever built-in bed ideas for children’s rooms.

All the houses have 11-metre partially paved rear gardens. The landscaping is by Mitchell + Associates, and each garden will be set out as per the showhouse.

Management fees are €404 a year and exclude bin collection charges.

The entrance to the estate is flanked by two hand-beaten steel and aluminum columns by Conor Fallon, once part of Pegasus, a trio of sculptures that were commissioned by Sir Anthony O'Reilly for the Independent Newspapers printing plant in Dublin's Citywest. Water once gushed down from the plinths. The horses, minus the plinths, have been relocated to the lawn in front of the K Club at Straffan, Co Kildare.