Set high on a hill Mount Merrion is a well-established sylvan suburb that links Blackrock to Stillorgan and has Deer Park, a 13-hectare (32-acre) green space, at its beating heart.
The locale has its own supermarket, shops, thriving neighbourhood restaurants, schools and even a bar.
These amenities have attracted the attention of several developers who are fast filling in any gaps with new schemes, such as Oakview Property Development’s Thornhill Oaks development on Cherrygarth Road and Marlet’s Oatlands Manor, which are both house and apartment schemes. Meanwhile on Deerpark Road, Oakmount has launched the The Pinnacle, an apartment and penthouse block.
The existing housing stock consists of mainly sizeable semis dating from the early to mid-century, all with decent gardens. Many of these have been aggrandised and modernised to suit the needs of contemporary family life.
El Remo, number 9 Trees Avenue, is a large, double-fronted residence that will garner a lot of attention for the fact that it is a rare example of a detached house. It belonged to a builder when the street was being developed in the 1950s and it’s not hard to see why. The siting is impeccable. There are sea views from every rear window and it has an enormous two-tiered garden that extends to 130m (427ft) – longer than a rugby union pitch – and 48m (157ft) wide.
In its current iteration, the two-storey house, which has a Ber G rating, has five bedrooms, plenty of accommodation for most families and extends to 215sq m (2,320 sq ft).
The house has a roomy hall, a good-sized sittingroom to the left with a large broken-plan room to the back, which comprises a dining-living room and opens through to the kitchen. All have decent ceiling heights too.
From its elevated position, both living room and kitchen have stellar views of Dublin Bay and its shipping channels, with a door leading out to an east-facing terrace that overlooks both garden and sea.
The sheer scale of the garden is a luxury in itself. East-facing, it is bounded by a 300-year-old stone wall from the Deer Park Demense.
While already offering plenty of bedroom space, buyers at this level of the market look for a similar balanced proportion of living space. While the current configuration also includes a play room, small office and large utility, would-be buyers looking for a more considered layout will be interested in the fact that the property has planning permission to install an additional floor at garden level with plans drafted by Noel O’Dwyer of Node Architecture.
These plans move the kitchen down a floor where it would open directly out to the exterior and also include a family room, utility, storage and a windowed stairwell with sea views, as well as a larger terrace on the level above.
It’s a lovely idea that would give an additional 102sq m (1,098sq ft) of space, but given the property’s elevated position, consideration should also be given to the idea of flipping the layout so that the living space is at the top of the house with accommodation at garden level. The installation of a lift would help future-proof the property for later life stages.
Asking €1.625 million through agent SherryFitzGerald, the house has a pair of mature magnolia trees in the front garden where there is off-street parking for several cars.
The property is within a 30-second dash of Scoil San Treasa – you can hear the kids in the yard from the house. Mount Anville Montessori Junior School, Mount Anville Secondary School and Oatlands Primary School are all a short walk or cycle.
