As the deadline closes for would-be buyers to get their bid in on Walford, once Ireland's most expensive house, ALANNA GALLAGHERasks what it costs to buy a home at a top address
DUBLIN’S top addresses are now more accessible, with entry level prices on the capital’s poshest roads down 60 per cent or more. And they’re attracting a new kind of trophy homehunter: some are Irish couples living abroad now seeing value on these roads, while others sold at the peak, sat out the crash and are sick of renting.
“Buying now stacks up financially,” says Ronan O’Hara of Savills. Peter Kenny of Colliers has a handful of clients who are on a waiting list for the super A-list streets. “They are cash rich and looking for quality family homes in good locations. One has €10 million to spend. There are several others in the €2 million to €4 million bracket.”
These trophy homehunters want period redbricks, says David Byrne of Lisney. The houses change hands quietly, with a lot of the €1 million-plus transactions being done off-market, says O’Hara. It’s a small market but he estimates as much as 30 per cent of business done is below the radar. “It suits buyers who don’t want to be seen to be spending. And it suits the vendors who may not wish to sell in the first place.”
But while €3 million goes a long way in the current market, there are a handful of roads where you’ll have to pay more. Entry prices are more or less determined by the most recent sale on a road (although with few auctions and no property price register, this can be difficult to find out.)
Thus entry level on Shrewsbury Road is set at the €7 million paid earlier this year for Derek Quinlan’s house Derrymore, 6 Shrewsbury Road. Quinlan’s properties at 1 and 3 Shrewsbury are jointly on the market through agent Sherry FitzGerald for €7.5 million.
Meanwhile entry level on nearby Ailesbury Road is €2.35 million, following the sale of number 35 at an Allsop/Space auction in July, which made that price.
Elsewhere in Dublin 4, Park Avenue in Sandymount is a prestigious address where John O’Sullivan of Lisney estimates you can now buy one of its smaller, three-bed end-of-terrace houses for just over €1 million. He sold 37 Park Avenue at auction in May for €1.705 million. “The catch is that they rarely come up,” he says.
On the other side of the city, The Baily in Howth is a top drawer address where Windward, a five-bedroom house on Ceannchor Road, is for sale at €2.5 million through Property Team JB Kelly. However, Gallagher Quigley has Lonethorn, a detached home on a teardrop-shaped site with good views, for sale for €995,000.
In Sutton, entry level is about €1.4 million on Claremont Road, home to U2’s Larry Mullen. Joe Kelly of JB Kelly recently sold Treborth East for close to its asking price of €1.4 million, while Savills is seeking €1.5 million for the three-bedroom Taobh Coille at 21a Claremont Road.
In Malahide, €1.25 million appears to be the entry level price on Church Road, the top period home address. Number 5 Carlisle Terrace, Church Road, is listed as sale agreed on Myhome.ie – it had a price of €1.25 million. Number 2, Windsor Terrace, just off Church Road, is also sale agreed for in the region of €1.5 million through agents O’Farrell Cleere.
Entry level on Castleknock Road – from the Phoenix Park gates up to College Road – is Dublin 15’s so-called golden mile, says Lisney’s Darren Chambers. Savills’ Ronan O’Driscoll estimates entry level on this section of the road to be €800,000.
Prices on Seafield Road in Clontarf, Dublin 3, start from around €700,000. Savills sold a four-bedroom, semi-detached fixer-upper for just under €700,00 in mid-August while in March, Gunne sold number 39, a three-bed new-build semi, for about €700,000.
Back on the southside, Avoca Avenue in Blackrock trumps other roads for exclusivity. Dunnottar, at 7 Avoca Avenue, sold for well over its €795,000 price says Roseanne deVere-Hunt of Knight Frank. It needed refurbishment.
In Foxrock, Dublin 18, Daphne Kaye lists Westminster Road as a choice address, where entry level – in a development like Cairn Hill, off Westminster – is around €775,000. Savills is seeking this for a four-bed detached house. Meanwhile Hazelmere, a large modern six-bed detached home on Westminster Road, is for sale through Lisney for €2.95 million.
Vico Road in Dalkey (where Bono lives) is another top address – and it’s difficult to get anything for less than €2 million there says Rosie Mulvany of Sherry FitzGerald. Knight Frank is looking for €3.25 million for Ravello, Krish Naidoo’s house on Sorrento Heights, overlooking Vico Road.
As tenders close, will Walford still be Ireland's priciest pad?
SEVERAL tenders to buy Walford were expected to be submitted by today's deadline. The six-bedroom Edwardian house on Shrewsbury Road, Dublin 4, bought for €58 million in 2005, was put up for tender five weeks ago with a guide price of €15 million.
Unusually, the price and the identity of the buyer will not be disclosed to joint selling agents Savills and Lisney. The tenders are being handled by Dublin solicitor Donal T McAuliffe Co. The now near derelict house will cost a fair amount to make habitable. Its beneficial owner is Gayle Killilea, wife of property developer Sean Dunne.
What it costs to buy on top roads
Shrewsbury Road, D4 - €7 million
Ailesbury Road, D4 - €2.35 million
Temple Road, D6 - €4 million
Palmerston Road, D6 - €900,000
Park Ave, Sandymount, D4 - €1 million
Avoca Avenue, Blackrock - €795,000
Westminster Road, Foxrock - €775,000
Vico Road, Dalkey - €2 million
Seafield Road, Clontarf, D3 - €700,000
Baily, Howth - €995,000
Castleknock Road, D15 - €800,000
Claremont Road, Sutton - €1.4 million
Church Road, Malahide - €1.25 million
