Rathgar:€ 4.5mA family home on Orwell Road with lots of space and a good garden ticks all the right boxes says Bernice Harrison

Dublin estate agents are reporting that in this slower market buyers aren't budging unless a house ticks a long list of boxes.

For families at the upper end of the market, top of the list is location followed by space, a good, ideally south-facing, garden and character.

Number 66 Orwell Park, on one of Rathgar's best, and leafiest roads ticks these boxes and more. It's been in the same hands for the past 25 years, the owners are now downsizing and it's a comfortable, roomy family home.

Double-fronted and detached, it's one of three similar houses built by the same builder in 1890. At 276sq m (2,970sq ft) the six-bedroom house is for auction on November 21st through Sherry FitzGerald with an AMV of €4.5 million.

The builder obviously opted for quality details throughout, which include stained glass windows, wrought iron detailing on the front door and on the mahogany staircase (which is decorated with ivy motifs), as well as detailed cornicework and marble fireplaces.

The layout is as expected, two large reception rooms on either side of the hall, both gracious and elegant, with a formal diningroom down a couple of steps at the back of the house. The eat-in pine kitchen is also at the back.

Previous owners added a simple sunroom to take advantage of the south-facing aspect. New owners might want to open up the kitchen to give better access to the back garden and maybe upgrade the sunroom.

A cellar under the house, with access from the kitchen, is used as a utility room and provides valuable storage.

Upstairs the first of the six bedrooms is in the return, as is the very smart, period-style family bathroom; there's a separate toilet.

Upstairs there are five more bedrooms - that's as listed in the brochure but really there are four fine double bedrooms with fireplaces and good wardrobes.

One of the rooms has a bathroom off it - while the "sixth" bedroom is used as a study. When the house was built, this small room to the front of the house with a connecting door to a large bedroom was probably a nursery room. New owners will probably do what many owners of these type of houses do, and that is turn this small room into either a smart en suite or a dressingroom.

The back garden, with its pond and patio area, has obviously been well tended and loved by an enthusiastic gardener while the front garden has off-street parking for two - or at a push, three - cars.