Financier's refurbished Ballsbridge house

A large Victorian redbrick on Elgin Road has been given a thorough makeover, and a price to match, writes EMMA CULLINAN

PROPERTY DEVELOPER Derek Quinlan is selling his former offices at 1 Elgin Road, Dublin 4, as a house, just over two years after he bought it for €7 million.

The six-bedroom house, which is set back from the road, has been extensively refurbished to sleek condition. It is for sale through Daphne L Kaye for €7.5 million.

Financier Quinlan, a former tax inspector, is also selling in New York where he has put an 1857 six-storey house (including basement) on East 64th Street, on the Upper East Side, for $37 million (€27.7 million) and an office, for $27 million (€20.2 million) on the same street.

The house at 1 Elgin Road is just around the corner from a house on Raglan Road which has been on the market for a couple of months, for €5.9 million, through Lisney. It was Lisney who sold 1 Elgin Road to Quinlan in February 2006.

Lisney says it has had offers on the Raglan Road house but none has been satisfactory yet.

That house is beside the home which Michael O’Leary bought in more buoyant times, in early 2007, for €9.4 million.

Dublin 4 prices have dropped by as much as 40 per cent, says Simon Ensor of Sherry Fitz-Gerald, who specialises in this area.

He says that while good addresses tend to stick out slumps, prices rose so high in Dublin 4 that they too have fallen back. But, he says, with such houses in high demand and low supply at the moment, he doesn’t see prices going much lower than the realistically priced properties today. All eyes are on what these houses will sell for.

The Victorian two-storey over garden level house at 1 Elgin Road measures 390sq m (4,200sq ft) and has a drawingroom and diningroom with marble fireplaces plus a study and orangerie on the ground floor.

There are four bedrooms on the first floor as well as a shower room. There are two more bedrooms at garden level along with a wine cellar, familyroom and kitchen. This has Poggenpohl fitted units with granite worktops and extensive appliances, including a coffee maker.

There is a coach-house in the garden.

1 Elgin Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

Renovated six-bedroom house with coach-house

Agent: Daphne L Kaye Associates