Talking Property

Take things as they are, says ISABEL MORTON

LAST weekend, I couldn’t resist nipping in to view a property I’d often passed on my travels and wondered what it was like inside. Called Ashley, it’s a large Edwardian house on about an acre in Glenageary, and it’s one of only a tiny number of properties being sold by auction this season. Agents Lisney consider it one of the finest houses to come on the market so far this year and they’re probably not exaggerating.

Ashley is one of those large (4,300 sq ft/400 sq meters) solid redbrick homes of people’s dreams, surrounded by properties of equal stature and ideally orientated to catch the sun. It’s expected to make around €2.5 million at auction on April 13th.

It is just the sort of property which would once have generated huge interest from the south-county set, who would have battled at auction to pay upwards of €6 million for something of this calibre, then handed over 9 per cent stamp duty, prior to “throwing another one at it” (ie, spending a further one million euro renovating, decorating and furnishing the property).

I couldn’t help but contrast last Saturday afternoon’s open viewing to the days of yore, when you would have been mown down by the smart set, dragging their little darlings around the house before herding them into the gleaming 4X4 and roaring off to the next multi-million-euro property viewing.

These days, viewers are low-key and very discreet. They park their well-maintained 2006 cars quietly out of sight. Their little darlings are left behind as, not old enough to quite understand the intricacies and subtleties of the recession, they may inadvertently give the game away.

Indeed, estate agents are so appreciative of any genuine buyers these days that they practically photograph, fingerprint and run identity checks in the event that even one of these rare creatures may escape their clutches.

Wives, usually the ones with the final say when it comes to property buying, are revered more than ever now that all of the cash and assets have been transferred into their names. (Husbands are now considered as little more than consorts and are rarely acknowledged, let alone consulted on property matters.)

Ashley, however, is one of those properties which will get husband and wives talking, as, despite the fact that it has been well maintained by its current owners, whose family have been in residence for the past 60 years, it does perhaps, require a little updating.

Although, somehow, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat sad at the notion that the new owners would inevitably remove all evidence of the (so-far) beautifully preserved servants quarters, which currently consist of the original housekeepers sitting room, bedroom, scullery, china store, pantry and utility room, and they will no doubt amalgamate them all, along with the original kitchen, to create one very large kitchen/family room.

I was reminded of a friend, who last year debated for months over the purchase of a house in need of updating. As his bank would not lend him any money to renovate the property, he spent a long time trying to figure out how much the alterations might cost and how long the work would take to complete.

This in turn would dictate how much money he would have to spend on renting another family home while this work was being done. And then, there was the imminent threat of an increase in interest rates, which he also had to allow for in his calculations. He tried all the permutations, but the end figure always terrified him.

Talking it over with his wife, the pair ended up laughing as they reminisced about their respective childhoods. Memories of shared bedrooms, fighting for time in the one and only bathroom and being delighted when an older sibling left home and you got the box room, small but all yours, to do with as you wished.

It dawned on them that children are oblivious of such luxuries as en suite bathrooms, designer kitchens and landscaped gardens.

They then began to question their own expectations and their heretofore-unquestioning assumption that they would be obliged to totally gut and renovate their proposed new home and decorate it to the highest standard.

Why? They wondered. What was so wrong with doing nothing more than making a few basic practical improvements to the property and giving it a fresh coat of paint?

Were numerous en suite bathrooms imperative? Who really cares whether their kitchen is bespoke or a bargain basement buy? Would their children prefer to play in a landscaped garden or in the overgrown adventure playground which currently existed? I found myself hoping that the new owners of Ashley might possibly ask themselves the same questions and with any luck, come to the same conclusion.

Isabel Morton is a property consultant