Until February this year 16 Northbrook Road in Ranelagh was divided into nine flats.
Its owner, Mayoman Pat Connor, had bought the end-of- terrace house in 1992, when it was already in flats and over the years had little problem getting tenants, or for that matter had any problem with them when they were installed.
However, he’s getting out. Being a landlord now, he says, is too much hassle. All the rights, he says, are on the side of the tenant and mention of the PRTB has the one-time builder spitting nails.
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He’s an old-school landlord – doing the upkeep himself, hands-on if there were problems, and he interviewed his tenants himself, usually ending the chat with the warning that it was a quiet house and parties were discouraged.
One of his tenants, who left in February, had lived there for 18 years. His flat was in what was originally the front reception room. It’s a fine, high-ceilinged room, 6.8m by 5.1m (circa 22ft x 17ft), with two tall sash windows, lovely decorative ceiling cornices and the original Victorian fireplace.
That’s what it looks like now that the house has been thoroughly renovated to bring it back to being a single-family home. It’s not what it was like in February when the tenant left. Then it was divided up to make a one-bedroom flat (€180 a week) with its own shower room in one corner. There was a false ceiling and the tall sash windows were missing their shutters and box architrave because they had been taken out to make more space.
After a mammoth top-to-bottom renovation job which included adding a pitched roof to the single-storey extension to the rear, as well as new floors, windows, rewiring, replumbing and replastering, the two- storey-over-basement redbrick bears no sign of its recent multiple divisions.
It’s now a 376sq m (4,047sq ft) family home with five bedrooms (two ensuite), with two interconnecting reception rooms at hall level and three more reception rooms at basement level, two of which open out on to the newly landscaped rear garden.
A custom-designed kitchen to the front at basement level is fitted with painted timber units topped with marble. It has a large island unit and the high- end fittings include a massive Viking stainless steel stove. There’s also a utility room down here and right at the top of the house is a family bathroom with a free-standing bath and walk-in shower.
Sometime in the past Connor ripped out the original sash windows at the back of the house and replaced them with uPVC for easy maintenance – it was something he came to regret during the renovation, as while he could refurbish the original sashes in the front, all the plastic windows had to be replaced with new timber sash windows.
Nice details include the original round stained glass in the inner hall, the unusual and highly decorative original staircase (much of it was boxed in during the rental years, so it was well protected) and the original encaustic tiles in the small outer hall that just needed a good cleaning to bring them back to their former glory.
Prime flatland area
Ranelagh has traditionally been one of Dublin’s prime flatland areas, with massive Victorian houses such as this one divided up in multiple units. This one was bringing in a solid, strong income.
If Connor had sold it in its multi-unit state last February it might, on a good day, have made the €2 million mark. Now it’s for sale for €2.95 million through Lisney, so bringing it back to family use added nearly €1 million to the price. It’s of interest to other landlords of multi- unit buildings in sought-after areas. It’s also a trend that’s a factor in the growing scarcity of rental accommodation.
