CO DUBLIN €390,000:NEW HOMES launches are rare these days as most builders that are still solvent are choosing to lie low until the market shows signs of rallying.
Winsac, run by Bernie Carroll and Malachy Clarke, is among the few brave enough to test the market, this time with nine detached houses with views out to the Irish Sea at Barnageeragh Cove in Skerries, Co Dublin. They are asking €390,000 for the four-bedroom houses through joint agents Hooke MacDonald and Grimes REA.
The development was first launched in 2008 with a block of seafront apartments called Kittiwake where prices ranged from €235,000 for small one-beds to €435,000 for large two-beds. There are also houses called the Ospreys and a duplex development called the Sanderling.
Even though there are occupied apartments and houses on one side of the development, these detached houses, called the Lapwing, will be the first to be built on the other side. There are plans for 87 three-bedroom semi-detached houses behind them at some stage but at the moment the show house looks a bit lonesome.
Although there are gates into the development on the Balbriggan Road (currently locked), access is through a residential area called Townparks (off the Dublin Road), past a series of housing estates, Skerries Point shops and an Educate Together school.
It will be interesting to see how buyers react to these houses, which are spacious at 53 sq m (1,650 sq ft) and well designed with A-rated energy efficiency. This is down to high levels of insulation, improved window and cladding systems, a low U-value (low heat loss), “a-rated” condenser boiler and a solar water-heating system that uses renewable energy.
Downstairs there’s a sitting room to the front with a big bay window and an open plan kitchen/dining/family room with doors out to the patio and garden. The kitchen has coffee and cream-coloured gloss units with a small counter area and a separate pantry. There’s also a big downstairs toilet.
Upstairs there are three bedrooms off the main landing, one of which has a shower en suite. The bedrooms are all a decent size with attractive cream fitted wardrobes. The biggest one has a box bay floor to ceiling window to make the most of the sea views, which are marred only slightly by a red barn on lands to the front. There’s also a good-sized family bathroom with attractive cream mosaic-topped tiling and an area on the landing for a desk looking out to the sea.
On the top level there’s a large main bedroom suite with room for a seating area and two sets of wardrobes with sliding doors. There’s also a good-sized shower en suite.
There’s a roomy walk-in floored attic area for storage.
Barnageeragh Cove, Skerries, Co Dublin
Description: Nine detached four-bedroom houses.
Agent: Hooke MacDonald and Grimes REA.
