Lisney’s auction on March 26th of a well-presented three- storey redbrick house in Monkstown will be a good indicator of the strength of the top end of the housing market in south Dublin.
The viewing figures for 8 Grosvenor Terrace will indicate how many potential buyers there are for a family home costing €1.5m-plus, and the price will show where property values stand at the beginning of the busy spring selling season.
Grosvenor Terrace is a short terrace of eight handsome houses just off the main road through Monkstown village, one of the most enduringly pricey suburbs in the city. Number 8 is at the innermost end of the terrace, with its large corner site giving it off-street parking for several cars. Visitors will be particularly appreciative of the parking, since the traffic wardens in Monkstown are widely regarded as among the most diligent in Dublin.
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Period cornice-work
The house has been an architect's family home for the past 20 years and is for sale because the time has come for downsizing. The owner's professional expertise has been put to good use in maintaining it to a very high standard and it's in excellent decorative order; it's hard to identify anything in its 2,800sq ft (260sq m) which the next owner would be rushing to change.
An impressive double flight of steps leads up to the hall door. The hall has the elaborate period cornice-work one expects and there’s room for a hall table, a grandfather clock and so on without any squeezing past.
The two elegant reception rooms, with dividing doors between them, are off the hall – both rooms have fine white marble fireplaces, good cornicework and big windows to the front and rear. There is a luxurious spaciousness to these rooms – the diningroom can take a table for 10 or 12 without space seeming pinched, and the drawing room has sofas, tables and easy chairs scattered through it.
Downstairs, en route to the ground floor, there’s a good-sized study with an outside deck for a cigarette or contemplation, and a flight of outside steps lead down to the back garden.
On the ground floor, one room has been shelved out and fitted as a large home office, and the other main room is a country-style kitchen with an Aga, good quality fittings in dark wood and glass doors opening on to a patio and large back garden ideally faced for the sun. The ground floor also has a shower room and a laundry room – and a rather attractive wine cellar.
Upstairs, the family bathroom has a free-standing bath and a separate shower. There are four bedrooms (although the count could be increased to six, if the study and downstairs office were brought into use). The main bedroom has extensive built-in wardrobes and a shower room.
Feeling of seclusion
The back garden is one of the glories of the house, with a formal structure of lawn, paths and planting that gives a feeling of walking in cloisters. Across the bottom of the garden, adding to the feeling of seclusion and privacy, there is a very large garage with vehicular access on to a lane.
As well as the main paved patio outside the kitchen doors, there’s a second patio to the side of the house at the back – a sheltered, private spot to which to retreat if the house has filled with people.
