Sex and the City-style penthouse

A chance to live over the shops in a penthouse apartment by St Stephen’s Green appeals to Rosemary Mac Cabe. Trouble is, it’s short on wardrobe space

A PENTHOUSE is the ultimate sign of high-flying achievement. It must be – otherwise why would they feature so prominently in the annals of television and movie history? Like plastic surgery, regular manicures and embossed business cards, owning a penthouse means you’ve really made it.

But who’s buying penthouses in these straitened times? Not very many people, one might imagine, but selling agent Owen Reilly of Owen Reilly Property Consultants says there’s still a market: “People are definitely waiting until they find a property that ticks all of their boxes – this property has space, location, light, style and it will be sold, I would imagine, to a high-flier.” He names the legal profession as one in which buyers are to be found.

So where better to demonstrate this against-the-odds success than at the top of Grafton Street, in a penthouse apartment directly across from the St Stephen’s Green centre, above Zara and HM and within a stone’s throw of, well, everything?

Number One Clarendon Row is a rooftop development of four bright, airy, penthouse apartments – and number 3 is up for grabs at €895,000. While this could hardly be considered a steal, it could have gone for upwards of €1.5 million at the height of the boom. The rental opportunities are good; approximately €3,000 a month wouldn’t be impossible, says Reilly.

With the apartment comes a parking space accessed by the niftiest of parking lifts (not for the claustrophobic, but at least your apartment will compensate for that), wooden floors, solid wood doors and a fully fitted kitchen with a range of slick silver Neff appliances.

That said, it doesn’t feel like an apartment in which a whole lot of cooking will be done. Entertaining? Yes. Cocktail mixing? Definitely. Cooking casseroles while the baby dozes in the stroller? Perhaps not.

First impressions of the 125sq m (1,345sq ft) apartment – a good size with a large, spacious hallway – suggest that the rest of the apartment will be equally roomy. But bedrooms are modestly sized and, along with two en suite bathrooms and a separate one for visitors, there’s not a whole lot more to it.

It’s in the living area that this penthouse comes into its own – a huge, open space with floor-to-ceiling windows that face out onto the Stephen’s Green centre, it is full of light and gives the appearance of being very airy.

But, man, is it hot. Almost stiflingly so, on a fine day – and while that may not be a problem one would ordinarily take into account when purchasing anywhere on our fine island, walking into the livingroom on a sunny October afternoon was akin to walking into a cooling oven.

Sliding doors at the front of the livingroom – a large, wide space with a kitchen against the back wall, complete with a long breakfast (lunch, cocktail) bar – open onto a spacious balcony, nine metres long and wide enough for a table and a few chairs. This is the perfect venue for some post-work aperitifs before heading out on the town, or, indeed, for a break from shopping, where you can unload some bags and regroup for the second wave.

While the view to the southeast is sublime – straight down the north side of St Stephen’s Green towards Merrion Row – the vista directly opposite the balcony is of the shopping centre itself, reams of glass and metal struts that, for an architect, might look like heaven but, for the young professional, could get tiresome.

But, oh, the geography! There is no possible location that could be more central, and really, that’s what this property is about. Right in the heart of Dublin’s shopping district, this would be the perfect launch pad from which to plan an assault on Grafton Street’s fashion possibilities. But are young, fashionable women really the prime candidates for this apartment?

Somehow, I think not. While the Sex and the City comparisons may well be enough to convince even the most sceptical young career woman (with €895,000 to spare) to take the plunge, this apartment screams young bachelor at the top of its bright, airy, lungs.

Modestly-sized bedroom? Well, that’d be a man, then, without the need for extra wardrobe space or a sit-down area for make-up application. A man who’d be perfectly happy to set up a widescreen television, Xbox and cocktail cabinet and invite the guys over for a few games of Texas Hold ’em in the new pad. Then out on the town to chat up some soon-to-be-impressed young ladies.

“Would you like to come and see my new apartment? Oh, yes, didn’t I mention? It’s right above Zara . . .” Now that’s a line worth trying.