Around the Block: Ballsbridge plot billed as ‘Last Picasso’

A key Ballsbridge site with planning permission for a stylish Dublin 4 home at the junction of Elgin Road and Raglan Lane is being marketed as “the Last Picasso” to reflect the rarity of such an invaluable find, it seems.

The description may be a little misleading because the expensive plot with full planning permission for a 2,800sq ft home immediately adjoins another, slightly smaller, site with permission for a second house of a broadly similar style and configuration.

The corner site is, however, a unique opportunity to buy in one of the leafiest residential locations in D4 . Because of the likely interest in the site, Lisney has disclosed a reserve price of €800,000 in advance of the auction on April 3rd.

The size of the reserve may prove daunting to some punters but it is a long way from the €3.5 million paid by the same vendor for the two combined sites when he bought them through Lisney at the peak of the property bubble.

Whoever buys the “Picasso” site will have pedestrian access off both roads and, in an area where every inch counts, the purchaser will have 76ft of frontage on to Elgin Road and 22ft 6 inches on to Raglan Lane.

Lisney’s David Bewley says that usually it is “simply impossible” to get a good house site in D4 except by buying a house and knocking it down.

Bewley estimates that the potential buyer will have to spend between €500,000 and €600,000 on building the house to the high spec plans which include a master bedroom and livingroom on the top floor. And a cinema, of course.