Ballsbridge three-bed with boutique feel in period package for €1.495 million

Buyers with deep pockets have any number of fine period properties to choose from but many in this so-called prime market, with the spending power of €1.5million and upwards, don’t want period charm. Their dream home is clean lines and contemporary in feel, with nary a crooked line in sight.

Number 17 Serpentine Avenue will tick a lot of these boxes. It has a charming period façade, complete with sash windows and fanlight over the door, but the interior is brand spanking new. The house has a BER of A2 and all the storage, bathrooms and space a modern family wants and needs.

The house was purchased by Keith Craddock of Red Rock Developments in 2017 when it was laid out in bedsits, and he knocked everything bar the front wall, so that inside you have soaring period ceiling heights but top-class heating and sound dampening.

This is important, for the house is across the road from the former AIB site, currently being reconstructed as Facebook’s new European HQ.

The interior feels like a miniature boutique hotel, stylishly appointed throughout.

The house is painted in fashionable greys and sludgy greens with the ceilings coloured in the same shade as the walls, creating a great sense of intimacy.

To the front is a small but nattily-decorated sitting room where an enormous TV screen has been set into a front corner so as not to dominate the room.

It’s a space where you can sprawl out on a russet sofa or put your feet up on the amber-coloured armchair and ottoman, all upholstered in deep pile velvets.

But the real heart of the home is its open-plan kitchen/living/diningroom, a well-appointed space that has everything a cook could want from a black five-ring range cooker by Smeg to a large oxidised brass sink big enough to wash kilos of vegetables. Extending to more than 35sq m, its back wall is all glass and looks out on to a small but private paved garden that has a south-easterly aspect.

Facing the house is a separate, cedar-clad home office or playroom built by Garden Rooms.

Upstairs there are three bedrooms, two doubles and an adorable single. The main bedroom is set to the back of the house.

The location is first-rate. Any heavy-hitting Facebook staff would only have to cross the road to go to work. The Dart station is down the street, Herbert Park is a short stroll away and there is a choice of schools within walking distance.

There is off-street parking to the front. The property, which extends to 165sq m (1,776sq ft), is seeking €1.495 million through Bennetts Auctioneers.