Houses in Dublin’s most desirable coastal locations, on both the northside and southside, come with heavy price tags. The following three houses, all built around the 1960s, are in top seaside locations with sea views.
12 Asgard Road, Howth
€725,000, PropertyTeam JB Kelly, 105sq m (1,130sq ft)
Dating from 1962, number 12 is a detached redbrick dormer bungalow. The house is positioned on a site sloping upwards on Howth Hill, with expansive views over the harbour, enjoying a highly convenient location a mere five-minute stroll from Howth village.
Inside, an entrance hallway spans nearly the entire length of the house, with a bathroom at the end, three bedrooms on the right half of the house and a reception room, diningroom, kitchen and utility on the left half. A staircase in the hallway leads to an attic room with velux window and storage. The layout is, by modern standards, not ideal, with no en-suite bathroom and no open-plan living. In spite of layout issues, this home’s main selling point is its elevated 0.22 acre site with its perfect southerly exposure, which offers seemingly endless possibilities. A bungalow may suit some buyers, however it is undeniable that a two-storey house would best suit the site in order to fully exploit its panoramic sea views.
While many of the homes lining Asgard Road remain relatively untouched, in recent times two recently purchased neighbouring houses have received major overhauls. Number 7 Asgard Road was purchased for €555,000 in 2010 and extended by its new owners to more than double its size to 276sq m. Number 3 Asgard Road, purchased for €535,000 in 2012, was demolished and replaced with a 319sq m bungalow. Both of these homes offered larger sites than Number 12, however at the time development value was null and void given the economic climate.
Prior to the market’s collapse, one home a few doors down with a near-identical site was for sale for €2.5 million in 2006, although the house was larger.
14 Asgard Park, Howth
€850,000, Gallagher Quigley, 200sq m (2,153sq ft)
Constructed in 1966, Asgard Park is a development of 30 houses that could be mistaken for any sleepy suburban development around Dublin. However, for the fortunate few houses on the northern side of the estate, uninterrupted views of Balscadden Bay are their best feature.
To the front of the home is a well-stocked garden and driveway with room for two cars. The downstairs of the house comprises an entrance hallway, study, livingroom, diningroom, kitchen, utility, pantry, toilet and lounge/fourth bedroom. The livingroom, lounge and kitchen are all at the rear of the house benefiting from exceptional views of the sea and the scenic grounds of neighbouring houses on Balscadden Road. The east-facing garden, while not huge, is laid out in a patio area and lawn and is extremely pleasant thanks to these views. Upstairs, the house features three bedrooms, one with en-suite shower room, and a bathroom. The house would benefit from updating and new owners may seek to change the layout downstairs to reduce the current warren of smaller rooms to fewer larger rooms. For buyers seeking more bedroom and bathroom space, one neighbour has added a good-sized dormer extension to provide a better balance of living/bedroom space and a similar extension may be possible here subject to planning permission.
The house next door, number 13 Asgard Park, was for sale in 2008 for €1.395 million offering 150sq m of space and requiring modernisation. In 2013, a 300sq m house two doors away, number 16, with a wider site sold for €1.275 million.
Monte Coelio, 4 Ard Mhuire Park, Dalkey
€775,000, Sherry FitzGerald, 160sq m (1,722sq ft)
Located on the slopes of Killiney Hill, houses on Ard Mhuire Park began to be built to order from the early 1950s until construction on the road was completed in the mid-1960s. The street is enviably located one minute from one of the area’s best amenities – Killiney Hill Park.
Number 4, one of the four non-detached homes on the street, is an attractive family home with parking for three cars to the front.Inside, the drawingroom is well proportioned with pleasant features such as original coving and the diningroom to the rear interconnects with a light-filled sunroom, which opens out to the garden. A separate TV room, shower room and kitchen complete the ground floor. Upstairs there are four bedrooms, two doubles and two singles, and a family bathroom. Two of these bedrooms face north and offer views across Dublin Bay towards Howth.
The rear garden is 24m (78ft) in length, faces due south and offers potential for expansion, subject to planning permission. There is a spacious garden and large balconies to the front and rear. It is likely that buyers will seek to make changes to add a second bathroom upstairs and enlarge the kitchen downstairs. The neighbouring home, a 139sq m detached house with a wider but less deep site, sold in 2006 for €1.725 million. More recently, a 209sq m detached bungalow at the end of the cul-de-sac sold for €910,000 and a 222sq m detached house across the street is currently on the market for €1.25 million.
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