WHAT USED TO be known as the beauty parade in property circles is to be trotted out again. By that we mean the boom-time practice of calling in a number of high-profile agents to cast their rule over a house – and whoever comes up with the highest valuation and the lowest fee invariably gets the job.
A Dublin firm of chartered surveyors has apparently invited Sherry FitzGerald, Lisney, Savills and a few others to take another look at Walford, which at one stage was Ireland’s most expensive home and is now a blot on Shrewsbury Road.
Apparently a new valuation has to be done on the pile which is thought to have been sold to Gayle Killilea, wife of developer Sean Dunne, in 2005 for €58 million. What’s it worth now? Would it make double digits? Probably. Earlier this year Sherry FitzGerald got about €7 million for a beautifully presented semi on the the same road owned by Derek Quinlan.
Walford is a completely different kettle of fish. It needs complete refurbishment and new owners will probably find it difficult to get planning permission to develop the 1.8 acre gardens because of the opposition from ever-vigilant neighbours.
In the meantime, Colliers are reporting renewed intrest in two adjoining houses on the street which have been on the market for a very considerable time at the a same asking price – €8 million. They are Niall O’Farrell’s modern home Thorndene and the offices of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, which will inevitably be put into residential use. Not surprisingly the €58 million Walford sale attracted worldwide attention six years ago, but it seems strange now that it did not trigger sheer panic in the boardrooms of the Irish banks and the office of the regulator. After all it was one of the great excesses of the property boom.
