Doonecoy, Castlepark Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin Agent: Colliers Jackson-Stops

Two houses for sale with good Sandycove and Dalkey addresses show how prices have fallen since the boom ended, writes Frances O'Rourke

TWO HOUSES for sale in Sandycove and Dalkey underline the fall in values in a market where vendors are adopting a more realistic approach to selling prices.

Homes in the seaside suburbs attracted top prices over the decade of the boom.

A house like Matisse, a large detached five-bed at 23 Elton Park in Sandycove, would have gone on the market at well over €3 million a few years ago.

And one like Doonecoy, a detached four-bed in need of complete renovation, a few minutes’ walk away on the corner of Castlepark Road and Hyde Road (see page 4), could have made over €2 million.

Matisse did go to auction in March 2007 with a guide of €3.75 million. It was withdrawn, and is now for sale by private treaty through Lisney for €2.65 million.

Meanwhile Doonecoy will be sold at what must be one of the first auctions of the season. Agent Colliers Jackson-Stops is giving it an AMV of €675,000 in an executors’ sale.

The constant demand for homes in the area is backed by the fact that there are a number of developments going through the planning process there at the moment. Among these is a scheme of four large houses on a 0.55-acre corner site at Ard Mhuire, 40 Elton Park.

Last July Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council refused permission for this scheme but there is outstanding planning permission for a 15-apartment development on the same site.

Nearby, An Bord Pleanála rejected a plan last February to build 47 houses and apartments on a 3.7-acre part of Castlepark school’s grounds off Castlepark Road. The board has also turned down plans for new homes on the two former garden centre sites on Castlepark Road directly behind Doonecoy.

It seems probable, however, that eventually permission will be granted for developments in the area.

Number 23 Elton Park – christened Matisse by its owners because of their love of the south of France – is a handsome 1920s house set well back from the road whose strongest selling point is a wide 117ft by 70ft back garden.

A curious feature here is a beehive hut-shaped bomb shelter, installed in the 1940s: the owner has seen several more like it in gardens of other houses in the neighbourhood.

Although it needs modernisation, the 235sq m (2,530sq ft) five-bed is a comfortable family home with a number of good period details, like the part-panelled doors and the tiled entrance with a study off it.

There are two good reception rooms at the back of the house overlooking the garden. The drawingroom opens into a circular conservatory. The kitchen and breakfastroom are at the front of the house.

Upstairs there are four bedrooms, one en suite, and a study, as well as a family bathroom and toilet. The rooms at the back have good views towards Killiney Hill.

More stairs lead to a top floor where there’s a teenagery bedroom/den and a small exercise room: new owners might well want to turn this area into their own bedroom to take advantage of the excellent views.

Doer-upper in Dalkey up for auction, The Irish Times, 29 January 2009

DALKEY/€675,000: Agent Peter Kenny of Colliers Jackson-Stops is brushing up his auction skills for February 25th, when this four-bedroom house built in 1947 goes under the hammer in an executors’ sale. It has an AMV of €675,000.

It’s a very modest price for a house in the heart of Sandycove/Dalkey, right on the corner of Castlepark Road and Hyde Road, beside the former Mackey’s garden centre. It’s realistic, however, for Doonecoy needs everything done to it.

The 145sq m (1,562sq ft) house is a solid, traditional home with plenty of room to expand. And it has good-sized gardens front and back, carefully tended by their late owner, and there’s a magnolia, an apple tree and a range of specimen plants.

Existing accommodation includes an interconnecting livingroom and diningroom downstairs, with a kitchen/breakfastroom – with an Aga – at the back. New owners would likely build a new kitchen spanning the whole back of the house. There’s room to extend too into the attic, as neighbouring houses have done.

A lane at the back of the garden leads into a long double garage, which opens onto Castlepark Road, right beside the former Mackey’s centre.

This large site, directly behind Doonecoy and several other houses on this corner, is awaiting redevelopment: although the developer has so far failed to get permission to build new homes here, it seems probable that it will eventually be built on. But new owners of Doonecoy might plant trees to protect the privacy of the property.