Home and income in Ballsbridge

These two terraced houses offer great potential to become comfortable family homes along with the opportunity to earn a little extra

54 Haddinton Road, Dublin 4

54 Haddington Road, Dublin 4

A mid terrace, two-storey over basement house on Haddington Road in Dublin 4 has come on the market through Lisney asking €995,000.

Number 54 is currently divided into two units with a one bedroom flat on the ground floor and a three-bedroom home occuping the middle and top floor.

Overall the property has been well kept and it would suit a number of different buyers. It could easily revert to being a single family home but it also has appeal as an investment property given its good location close to the city centre and to busy Baggot street’s busy restaurant scene.

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Wide granite steps, directly adjoining those of the neighbouring house, lead to the front door which opens into a fine, high ceilinged hallway. The traditional inter connecting reception rooms have kep their high dividing doors but not all the original features are intact. The front facing livingroom has lost its original fireplace though the crazy paved stone surround fireplace is a period piece in itself. The rear reception room has become a spacious kitchen and has a tall windown overlooking the garden. On the first floor there are three double bedrooms and a shower room at the top of the house.

The garden level is self-contained and is accessed to the front. It has a combined living room and kitchen, a double bedroom and shower room.

Both parts of the house have access to the garden, where luxurious planting gives a nice sense of privacy. There is obvous scope to both the garden level and upper level have access to the garden which is extensively planted and offers tremendous scope to extend the existing residence as many of the neighbouring properties have done.

Avondale, Dún Laoghaire

Much appreciated and cared for as a family home for the past 28 years, Avondale is a large Victorian terraced house ripe for a make-over. It’s located on Northumberland Avenue, a wide, tree-lined road close to Dún Laoghaire town centre.

The Garby family bought Avondale, No 3 Northumberland Avenue, for €160,000 in 1989. “That was a lot of money then,” Sinead Garby says. “It was in flats at the time, like many of its neighbours.”

In recent years, many of the houses on the avenue have been sympathetically restored for family living.

“We’ve done very little to Avondale but it’s been a total family home for us. We’ve spent extraordinarily happy years here.” The family took care to preserve period features. High ceilings are an intrinsic feature, with intact plasterwork in many rooms. Original floorboards are also intact (carpeted over for now) as are banisters, working shutters, fireplaces, internal doors, fanlights and nice looking double arches on the return.

The remnants of Avondale’s commercial existence can be seen in the number of shower rooms (two) and separate toilets (four) as well as in walls dividing the formal reception rooms.

Agent Douglas Newman Good is asking €925,000 for a house with a 298sq m (3,208sq ft) floor area, seven bedrooms, five reception rooms, kitchen/ breakfastroom and laundry room.

Elsewhere on the road, No 11 Northumberland Avenue sold for €845,000 last December while No 23 made for €620,000 in 2014.

Avondale could be configured in several ways; one might be to rent the garden level for income.

For now, the garden level has two bedrooms, a living room, laundry room and its own separate front entrance. The hall/ground floor has living and dining rooms, study, spare room and a rear kitchen/breakfastroom overlooking apple trees in the garden.

The first floor return has a couple of showers and two separate toilets. The remaining five bedrooms are off the first floor landing.