Ripe for renewal in Portobello

Bloomfield Avenue in Portobello is one of those roads where the Property Price Register is never a useful guide to house prices. That’s simply because the houses that have come on the market in recent years, while outwardly similar – all being Victorian terraced houses, have varied in terms of condition.

They can be single family homes, kept in the same family for generations, or houses divided into multiple flats – in both cases requiring extensive renovation, or houses that have been fully upgraded in recent years in turn-key conditions. It’s the same in the other roads off this section of the South Circular Road which for decades has been part of Dublin’s flatland.

The owners of 10 Bloomfield Avenue bought nearly 30 years ago – one of the early buyers prepared to take on a house in several bedsits. They brought back the 1,540sq ft (143sq m) terraced redbrick to its original layout use making it a three-bedroom house with two reception rooms and the kitchen in the return. In more recent years they extended the kitchen by adding a sunroom at the back.

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The main bedroom, which runs the width of the house at the front was, remembers the owner, divided into a one-bedroom flat.

They are now moving on to something more modern and the house is for sale through Felicity Fox for €850,000.

While the new buyer could simply move in and live in it as is, it’s likely they will renovate and redecorate from top to bottom.

The bathroom, for example is small and dated – other owners of similar houses have taken a slice of the bedroom in the return to create a good-sized family bathroom with space for a bath.

While there are period features – such as the white marble fireplaces in one of the reception rooms and the upstairs bedrooms – the original sash windows which add greatly to these house’s attractiveness, are long gone, replaced by aluminium windows. New owners who tend to be drawn to these houses because of their convenient city location but also their period look will probably look into replacing these.

The south-west facing back garden has pedestrian access to a lane that runs at the rear of these house.