The handsome two-storey period houses on Herbert Road in Dublin 4 can sometimes appear on the Property Price Register as Ballsbridge but most regard it as Sandymount – not just because the line of properties, some semi-detached, some detached, on one side of the road, face the Sandymount Hotel. Its proximity to the Aviva Stadium sees it a busy, buzzy place on match days.
Directly opposite the hotel, number 8 Herbert Road has come on the market through Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of €1.75 million. It’s been in the same family for many years and for the sale they have done some freshening up including new carpets throughout and painting the main rooms. Long before that, they extended the house by adding to the rear and going up into the attic. There is now 2,874sq ft (267sq m) in the D2 energy-rated family home. Originally a four-bedroom house – three good doubles, one with en suite, and a single (inevitably now used as a home office) – the en suite room in the converted attic is used as a fifth bedroom.
Downstairs the two interconnecting reception rooms, as well as the hall, have the attractive proportions and period features that add to the appeal of these houses.
New owners will have some decisions to make, though: most obviously, is how to rework and update the kitchen. At the rear of the house, the original breakfast room is as it was and now wrapping around it to the side – accessed off the back reception room – and across the rear, is the L-shaped kitchen with its extensive range of pine units.
While they are updating the flooring and units, new owners may consider knocking the wall between the original breakfast room and the kitchen to create a very large, square and more contemporary eat-in kitchen and dining space. The conservatory to the rear may go too, to make more outdoor space in the mostly paved rear garden.
The house is set well back from the road, with parking to the front for three or four cars and it’s well screened, so that there is a sun-trap patio at the front.
In 2009, when the market was in the doldrums, the neighbour of this semi-detached house, number 10 – which had been renovated and extended and was in turnkey condition – sold after a busy auction for €2.05 million, 17 per cent over the €1.75 million AMV. Those owners moved on in 2017, selling for €2.2 million.
