A Dublin developer paid €10 million after auction yesterday for Santa Maria, a detached Victorian house on two acres with development potential, at Cunningham Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin.
The new owner is expected to seek planning permission to build at least four large houses on the site, and to refurbish Santa Maria before putting it back on the market.
The houses, on a site which has sea views and is within walking distance of Dalkey village and Dalkey Dart station, could make €3 million each.
The sale includes separate access to a rear section of the garden from Cunningham Drive.
Four developers chased the property at the auction yesterday afternoon: no bids were received at the 2.30pm start time, and it had to be restarted at 3pm. Bidding opened at €7 million, the initial guide price, and the property was withdrawn at close to €9 million. It was sold later for close to €10 million. Jackson-Stops and Lisney were joint selling agents.
The father of writer Hugh Leonard, who writes about Dalkey in the 1940s in his autobiography Home Before Night, was a gardener at Santa Maria. Back then, it was known as Enderly and was owned by the Jacobs, a prominent Quaker family.
The house and garden were used in Da, the film version of Leonard's play about his father. It was renamed Santa Maria when it was sold after the second World War. In 1958, the Kennedy family bought it for £5,000 and have lived there until now.
Many suburban houses with large gardens are currently being bought by developers planning to build in-fill schemes.
The next major sale of a house with development potential will be at the end of the month when Walford, a house on 1.8 acres at Shrewsbury Road, Dublin 4, is to be sold by tender. It has a guide price of €35 million.
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