A high-end scheme of 20 houses by the gates of the park – on a site bought from the Guinness family– should appeal to families trading up

A PRICE cut of over €1 million should attract upwardly mobile families to Whites Gate in Castleknock, a new development of large detached houses on Whites Road, beside the Phoenix Park.

The 20 houses that make up the cul-de-sac were mothballed on completion over a year ago, when the property market started falling. Originally, the developer, Menolly Homes, expected the homes to sell for around €3 million each; now they are on the market at €1.9 million.

Selling agent Sherry FitzGerald New Homes expects that most buyers will be families trading up from smaller homes in the area. However, the difficulty for these people is in selling their own home. With bridging loans a thing of the past, it’s now necessary to have a large cash deposit before making a move up the property ladder.

Whites Road is a quiet, leafy location, with all the feel of a country road. It ends at the gates of the Phoenix Park, and most of the traffic outside the houses is pedestrian – dog walkers and joggers on their way down to the park. The site is part of a 28-acre parcel purchased by Menolly from the Guinness family in 2001. The land adjoins the 78-acre Farmleigh estate which the Government purchased from the Guinnesses in 1999.

Menolly first developed Farmleigh Wood, a large scheme of high-end apartments and houses that overlooks the grounds of Farmleigh, now used as a guesthouse for foreign dignitaries by the Government.

Farmleigh Wood has one and two-bedroom apartments in the central blocks and larger homes surrounded by extensive landscaped gardens. The master plan for both it and Whites Gate was designed by Henry J Lyons Architects. There are still some apartments and houses for sale at Farmleigh Wood, and prices have also fallen – one-bedroom units are now €350,000 while two-beds start at €430,000.

Visually, Whites Gate is a different style of development and one that is was very much dictated by the linear nature of the site.

Menolly maximised the site by introducing a row of three-storey Edwardian-style redbrick houses that form a striking avenue off the road. The landscaped front gardens have plenty of space for parking and for neighbours to commune. The rear gardens – which back onto houses in the Georgian Village – are smaller than one might expect, but clearly the developer reckoned that having the park so close would more than compensate.

These are large houses that vary in size from around 291sq m (3,132sq ft) to over 336sq m (3,616sq ft).The ground floor layout is fairly traditional with a good wide hallway leading to interconnecting reception rooms on one side, and to a third reception room on the other side.

The drawingroom and interconnecting diningroom are both large and elegant rooms with the drawingroom having a large bay window and an impressive fireplace.

The hallway ends with the kitchen, a very generous room designed by kitchen expert John Daly with granite-topped, hand-painted units, Gaggenau appliances and, for serious cooks, a large Brittania range-type cooker.

The kitchen opens through to the diningroom but it also leads through to a garden room that could be either a sittingroom or an informal diningroom.

The first floor has four double bedrooms, two of them with good-sized en suites, while the entire top floor is given over to a main bedroom suite that includes a very large bathroom, a dressingroom and a study or gym. There is also a large laundry room with integrated washing machine and tumble drier.

The bedroom itself has double doors leading to a balcony with space for a couple of sun loungers. The finish throughout is impressive, with hardwood flooring in the main reception rooms, underfloor heating, top quality joinery and sanitaryware and a generous electrical spec that includes recessed spots throughout, mood lighting and network system that provides multi-room computer, internet, audio and television capabilities.

A small number of very large three-storey over basement terraced houses remain for sale at Farmleigh Wood. With their integrated basement double garages, they are ideally suited to grown up families or those with property abroad who want a secure base in Dublin.

These London-style houses are an impressive size – 307sq m (3,300sq ft) – and have some very attractive features, including a very large conservatory spanning the back of the house. They start at €1.4 million, while two end-of-terrace houses with large gardens are €1.5 million.