Big Sandymount houses have prices to match

Four new houses with guide prices of £1.5 million and a fifth that is expected to make more than £2.5 million go on sale in Sandymount, Dublin 4, this week. The houses are in a small development called The Vicarage, which is opposite St John's Church at the corner of Park Avenue. Agents Billy O'Sullivan and Associates are handling the scheme for Jadeview Homes and the houses will be sold by tender on October 27th.

All the houses have five bedrooms and are detached with 3,000 sq ft of accommodation, excluding the attic space which is floored.

The site used to be the location of a large house, which was the local vicarage, hence the name of the development. Planning was originally refused for apartments but was granted for five houses, which are in keeping in style and size with the old established redbrick homes on Park Avenue. The architects are Horan Keogan Ryan.

The four identical houses, which face on to St John's Road, are detached but not in the roomy, old fashioned sense in that they have only narrow alleyways dividing them.

The five bedrooms are all doubles and two have good-sized en suites. All the bedrooms have built-in wardrobes. The family bathroom is small relative to the size of the house. Downstairs, the hall is wide and floored with limestone tiles. Partially glazed double doors open into a large livingroom, which has a bay window and a traditional-style marble fireplace. Double doors open into the diningroom with a similar-style fireplace. There is also another room which leads out to the garden and which will probably be used as a playroom, a family room or a sunny breakfastroom.

The kitchen has space for a good-sized table and comes with integrated stainless steel appliances. There is a granite worktop and terracotta tiles on the floor. Off the hall, there is also a well-appointed utility room and a separate cloakroom and guest lavatory

The single house in the development that fronts on to Park Avenue (and has its address) is slightly larger than the other four and is on a considerably larger site. It has a different layout to the others and has a study.

It's difficult particularly in this market to see what makes a £1 million- plus house but in these houses it is probably a combination of the address and the materials used. They have slate-covered steps in the porch, extensive use of granite around the front door and marble in the bathroom. They also have triple glazed windows and blue Bangor slates on the roof. There are concrete floors upstairs and underfloor heating throughout.

The houses certainly feel very spacious inside but the exterior space gives no such sense. The fronts of the four St John's Road houses are mostly paved for parking and the back gardens are wide but otherwise not very large. The fifth Park Avenue house has a much larger garden to the front and side and also has the original vicarage's wrought iron gates.