Glenheather, a large house on 0.95 of an acre of garden, will be eyed by developers as well as househunters, writes Property Editor Orna Mulcahy
A detached seven-bedroom house on 0.95 acres on Avoca Avenue in Blackrock has an AMV of €9 million prior to auction through Sherry FitzGerald on March 29th.
The house which comes with a tennis court, swimming pool and original coachyard is located opposite the Avoca Park development of modern houses on the neighbourhood's most sought-after avenue.
Glenheather has been in the same family since the 1960s and the owners have raised their eight children here. It is now time to downsize and realise the amazing gains that a big Dublin house can provide these days. It was bought for £21,500 from an order of nuns back in 1968. The nuns had intended to house young college-going girls there, but were unable to get planning permission for an extension. They sold the house on at a loss to the current owner who inherited the drawingroom curtains but little else in the way of modern comforts. Dating from the 1850s, it's a big plain house that has been extended to one side. It now has a generous 535sq m (5,755sq ft) of living space, all of it in excellent decorative order.
However, buyers at this level of the market invariably redecorate from top to bottom and may well extend to create even more living space where people want it - on the ground floor connecting to the garden. They may also seek to build a second house to the side of the property, where there is plenty of road frontage and the entire coach yard area to develop.
A good house for a party, Glenheather has three large rooms at hall level, including a double drawingroom running the full depth of the house, a formal diningroom with tall sash windows overlooking the back garden, and a large study to the front. These rooms have fine plasterwork and original marble fireplaces. There is also a bathroom at this level.
Upstairs, five large double bedrooms lead off the upper landing, with the main bedroom having an en suite and the remaining rooms sharing a family bathroom on the top return. From the landing, a second staircase leads down to the extra wing of the house which has two bedrooms and a bathroom, as well as stairs leading down to the ground floor where there is a separate entrance.
The ground floor has a tremendously large kitchen, a separate family room that could do service as a disco, and a diningroom as well as a television room and plenty of utility space.
The extremely large back garden is the greatest selling point of the property. As the house is not listed, there is bound to be interest from developers who may consider it suitable for a small housing scheme, or even a couple of very large newly built houses.
