€6.5m Rathmines redbrick is 2016’s most expensive residential sale so far

A house on exclusive Temple Gardens in Rathmines has sold in an off-market deal for €6.5 million – the highest price achieved for a residential property in Dublin in 2016 so far. St Dominic's, 5 Temple Gardens, is a large detached redbrick house on about a third of an acre with an expansive north-facing rear garden. The property is the family home of the late barrister and former attorney general, Rory Brady, who died in 2010.

In spite of its many wonderful features, the house features an unsympathetic flat roofed two-storey rear extension and a large conservatory, both of which will likely be removed by the new owner as part of the practically inevitable refurbishment programme that buyers at this end tend to undertake.

Across the street, 23 Temple Gardens, the former home of ex-politician Liz O’Donnell, has been the subject of similar treatment after the house was purchased for €4.5 million in 2014. The house has undergone a lengthy refurbishment and a 1,000sq ft rear extension added.

The outcome is also pending on another recent sale on the road, that of Subiaco, 1 Temple Gardens. It came on the market asking €4.75 million, and sold so promptly it would indicate it sold for at or above the asking, though precise details have yet to emerge.

Meanwhile, Sunningwell, 7 Temple Gardens, a similar detached house to number 5, has failed to sell since coming on the market in 2014, even after a price drop last year to €3.95 million. While it is marginally narrower than 5 Temple Gardens, its reduced price now looks like a relative bargain compared to the recently achieved €6.5 million.

Temple Gardens has long been one of Dublin’s best addresses, attracting a who’s who of the professional classes, but the recent sale positions it well ahead of roads traditionally considered more desirable, such as nearby Temple Road and Dublin 4’s Ailesbury Road.

Despite its northerly orientation and the likely prospect of a full renovation, the sale of number 5 outprices even comparable properties on Shrewsbury Road, which less than a decade ago ranked as the sixth most expensive road in the world.