Dún Laoghaire scheme makes apartment living a long-term choice

Builder Joe Cosgrave only recalls a short period living in a duplex apartment in Dublin 4 when his kids were young, but you would never know that when you first walk through Eustace Court, a five-storey scheme of 95 apartments, the latest to be constructed by the housebuilders on the site of the Old Dún Laoghaire golf course.

The block is part of Cualanor, a 31-acre site adjoining Tivoli Road and across the road from the southern side of the former golf course, where Honeypark launched in 2013 and is fronted by Park Pointe shopping centre.

The development is an exercise in apartment living as a long-term lifestyle choice and its construction has put a strong emphasis on dampening down noise transfer.

Anyone who has lived in apartment blocks where the central doors bang and residents’ voices echo down the hallways will appreciate the attention to detail here. Acoustic muffling panels on the ceilings of all communal corridors and soft-closing doors do much to address noise concerns.

Areas of expertise

The Cosgrave brothers, Joe, Michael (Mick), Peter and Willie all have their areas of expertise within the family business, which was set up in 1979. Mick is the passive house expert; Peter buys the sites and Joe is charged with their development. Youngest brother Willie focuses on design; for example, the door hardware and internal doors here are all to his sketches.

Joe says that when they first build a new scheme they build one unit and mark it out, studding all the walls in a day, noting how wide the hallway should be and where the kitchen and bathroom should go. “You build better if the proportions work,” he says.

And you can see the difference. Each unit has decent ceiling heights of 2.6m with an acoustic barrier underfoot that minimises sound transfer. With the exception of the external walls the party walls are 45ml thick to further dampen down any residual noise.

The homes come fully floored and have gloss units by Nolan Kitchens, stone countertops and the asking price includes appliances, built-in wardrobes by Cawleys Furniture and bathrooms with some showers 1.4m deep and include Gerbrit sanitary ware. The family bathrooms have a P-shaped bath, “for a big fella like me”, Joe explains as he jumps into the bath to demonstrate its extra volume.

Fresh air

Each unit comes with a spacious-feeling balcony of 9m height and 1.7m depth. The homes feature a heat-recovery ventilation system that, along with the passive building methods, deliver A-rated homes where utility bills are low and there is a constant flow of fresh air.

Prices for one-bed units from 59 to 64sq m/644 to 689sq ft, start from €375,000 through agents Hooke & MacDonald. Two beds from 81sq m to 92sq m/874sq ft to 998sq ft, start from €450,000. These include a small internal study. Prices for the three-beds, from 104sq m to 119sq m /1119sq ft to 1280sq ft (with internal study), start from €560,000. Cosgraves Developments sold the first round of homes in its Honeypark scheme in 2013 when asking prices started from €435,000 for properties around 139sq m (1,500sq ft).

There are also some two- and three-bed penthouses for sale with lovely views of either the Dublin Mountains or the sea.