Tradition wins out at Ballintyre

Dublin 16: from €490,000The first homes to be built at a major new development in south Dublin are traditional three and four-bed semis and townhouses. Orna Mulcahy reports

A major new housing development on Dublin's southside goes on sale today with the launch of three and four-bedroom houses at Ballintyre, on Ballinteer Avenue in Dublin 16.

A total of 118 houses are being built in the 24-acre scheme which is within a few minutes drive of the M50 and the new Dundrum Town Centre. Prices start at €490,000 for terrraced three-bedroom townhouses, while four-bedroom semis are priced from €690,000. A handful of five-bedroom detached houses will also be built and while there is a five-bedroom showhouse on view, they are not yet being released for sale.

Hamilton Osborne King is handling sales on site, and selling agent Catherine O'Connor expects many of the houses will be bought by locals trading up from houses in the area.

Ballintyre's main appeal is that it has got houses, rather than apartments, for sale. With most developers in Dublin trying to maximise site values by building high density apartment schemes, three and four-bedroom houses are very hard to find this close to the city centre.

While Ballintyre will have plenty of apartments - 380 in total - today's launch is for the houses, which are concentrated on one side of the site and arranged in a series of well spaced cul-de sacs.

There has been huge interest in Ballintyre since the site hit the headlines a year ago, selling for a record €51 million. The centrepiece of the site is a large Victorian house surrounded by two acres of protected woodland. The house and its outbuildings will be eventually be developed as apartments and own door units.

Developers Ray and David Grehan,whose previous schemes include St Wolstan's Abbey in Celbridge and Liffey Hall in Newbridge, are relative newcomers to the Dublin housing scene but Ballintyre is likely to establish them as important players in the market. Work started on site in January, and is now well advanced with the first residents expected to move in by Christmas.

Four different show houses are available and viewers will be impressed by the high spec finish in areas like the bathrooms and kitchens where granite worktops and quality integrated appliances - including a microwave - come as standard.

Solid interior doors with smart chrome door furniture, limestone fireplaces and generous recessed lighting are also features of each of the house types, while the gardens will come landscaped to the front with lawns to the rear.

The three-bedroom terraced houses have a sizeable livingroom to the front and a large eat-in kitchen to the rear overlooking the back garden. The ground floor toilet is larger than most because it's not crammed in under the stairs, and there is a utility room off the kitchen. Upstairs, the layout is traditional with two double and one single room, a bathroom and an en suite shower room. A four-bedroom end-of-terrace house, which is priced from €625,000, has approximately the same layout with a large top floor en suite bedroom. The four-bedroom semis have a two interconnecting recpeption rooms that open through to a large kitchen and breakfastroom with a useful utility room having direct access to a passageway leading to the garden.