Two options in Churchtown with space and potential

11 Milltown Drive, Churchtown

The Milltown part of this Churchtown house’s address is initially confusing – until you realise that beyond the very large garden that comes with 11 Milltown Drive is Milltown Golf Club. And the garden is large – a third of an acre, mostly under lawn and fringed with shrubs and trees while the house is tucked away at the end of the quiet suburban cul-de-sac. The only sound heard in the back garden is the occasional thwack of a golf ball.

Number 11 is one of two similar detached houses built in the 1950s on a road which is otherwise lined with semi-detached houses. They would have been the premium buy at the time. The other one last sold in 2004 and the owner of number 11 moved in in the 1970s.

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The view from 23 Landscape Crescent, Churchtown

Buyers this time around are likely to be a growing family trading up to get more space – inside and out – and with an eye to extending.

At present the four-bedroom house has 1,580sq ft, 147sq m of space and has been well looked after and upgraded down through the years by its present owners.

Downstairs there is a living room, dining room and kitchen/breakfast room and so buyers could move right in. Big picture windows both upstairs and down look out on the extensive mature garden and onto the golf course.

Some 1950s features remain – the panelled staircase for example but others such as what was presumably a tiled fireplace in the living room is long gone replaced with a white marble version from an older period.

But new buyers are more likely – given the site – to seek to extend and detached houses on large sites tend to greatly expand the list of available options. Not just because of the clear potential to extend the house’s footprint but because there tends to be less grumbling from builders about access problems and from the neighbours about disturbance. A new eat-in kitchen and a couple of en suites are likely to be high on the list of options.

As is common in 1950s suburban houses there is a garage – which could be incorporated to a new layout – with plenty of parking out front. DNG is the agent for 11 Milltown Drive, asking €1.1 million.

23 Landscape Crescent, Churchtown

Demand for well-located semi-detached houses in Dublin has produced steadily climbing prices in the past 12 months – so much so that they are fast becoming well beyond the reach of most first time buyers. 23 Landscape Crescent in Churchtown is such a house, on the market through Beirne & Wise with a strong asking price of €570,000.

Built in the 1950s, the Landscape estate in Churchtown is made up of similar semi-detached houses and according to the agent Joe Beirne, the Crescent is particularly sought after because they don’t come on the market too often and many of the houses, including number 23, look out first onto a small green space and then on to the playing fields of De La Salle College and so enjoy an open aspect. Its layout is as original – two reception rooms, a breakfast room and a small kitchen downstairs, two double bedrooms and a small box room upstairs. Overall it has 113sq m (1,219sq ft). Changes to its 1950s original design include the removal of the fireplace in the front reception room, although the chimney breast is still there, and a feature stone fireplace installed in the back room. The original bathroom – separate from the adjacent toilet – was converted into a shower room.

While the house could easily and comfortably be lived in immediately, it’s more likely that the buyers will do some work. They will probably tackle the bathroom – updating and enlarging it – and rethink the galley kitchen with its dated units. An open doorway links the kitchen and breakfastroom and if the buyer doesn’t want to extend out to the garden across the rear of the house, then knocking these two small rooms together would make a real difference.

The BER of just E1 suggests that several improvements could be made to make the house more comfortable and cheaper to run. There is the potential to extend though – to the side where there is a garage, to the rear and up into the attic – many houses in the estate have made all of these improvements. There is off-street parking to the front.