Neil Durkan says he is “a bit obsessive” about Fairfield, his family firm’s latest development off New Road in Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Some 82 homes are being built on the former Fairfield Park, a 1970s caravan park in the rapidly developing seaside town. In recent years Greystones has transformed from a coastal sleepy hollow to being twice voted as one of the World’s Most Liveable Communities at the International LivCom awards in 2008 and 2021.
“I used to pore over plans for Fairfield, envisioning what it would be like for the people who lived here,”Durkan says. Part of the incentive was a really good town centre site, minutes walk to local schools and the Dart station, he says. “But part of this was because [the company] is 60 years old this year and we wanted to build something really exceptional to mark that.”
The result is a well-finished development of two-bedroom own-door apartments, three-bedroom duplexes and four-bedroom semidetached and detached houses. They are finished in high quality brick and render and set in an attractive, mature landscape, surrounded by views of Bray Head, the Sugarloaf and Downshill in the background with the Irish Sea to the east.
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The first 16 homes in the scheme are set to be released on September 9th through selling agent DNG. This includes the Schooner, a two-bedroom, own-door apartment on the ground floor extending to 79 sq m (850 sq ft) from €490,000, and the Caravel, a three-bedroom duplex over first and second floors extending to 122 sq m (1,313 sq ft) from €575,000.
Prices have yet to be confirmed for the four-bedroom units – ranging from 170 sq m to 240 sq m – that will be released at a later date.
The homes in this development benefit from insulation and air-to-water heat pumps, ensuring at least an A2 energy rating. All homes come fitted with a mechanical ventilation heat recovery system, allowing for greater control over the heating and allowing fresh air to come in while expelling stale air.
The ground floor apartments offer higher than average 2.7m-high ceilings, spacious interiors and paved, private patios to the front and rear to capture the morning and evening sun.
The duplexes also have higher than usual ceilings, considerably better than average storage and generous, paved patio space.
The kitchens come with full-height fitted units and stone worktops by FitzGerald Kitchens. Appliances are fully integrated and include a dishwasher, microwave, oven, hob, extractor fan and fridge/freezer. There are porcelain sinks with mixer tap and each property has a separate utility room plumbed for a washer/dryer. The two-bed apartment has a bespoke bench built into the kitchen for storage.
Bathrooms are fitted with high-quality sanitary ware by Niko, generously tiled with a pressurised water supply feeding the showers. There are separate bath and shower units in the main bathroom of the duplex unit.
A nice feature is the five-amp socket provided in livingrooms and main bedrooms, which allows softer lighting from lamps to be controlled by switches when you enter the room.
All homes are covered under the Homebond structural and latent defects insurance scheme for 10 years and mechanical and electrical defects insurance for five years.
