One of Dublin’s best-known estate agents, Felicity Fox, has died, aged 49, after a short illness.

Fox was widely known and highly regarded within the property industry as a pioneering businesswoman and blazed a career trail with the Felicity Fox estate agency she started in 2002.

Fox enjoyed considerable early success, having built her reputation as a partner with DNG, and she soon garnered a niche selling smaller townhouse properties, in particular in the Dublin 8 area. Her professional approach to selling brought a refreshing style to the residential property market, where she was one of the first operators in Ireland to place particular emphasis on staging and presenting properties at their very best to potential buyers. This made Fox the forerunner to other “boutique” operators that followed during the rise and rise of the property market in the noughties.

Work ethic

Fox's commitment and work ethic at that time contributed almost single-handedly to the gentrification of South Circular Road, Kilmainham and surrounding areas. Properties in the Dublin 8 area are now among the most sought after in the city. As her reputation built, the St Andrew Street business soon expanded further into the south-city suburbs and Fox was also closely involved with a number of smaller city developers on new homes developments.

Fox was known for her persistent good humour, candour and innate understanding of the property market, and her death has shocked and saddened her colleagues in the property industry.

One former colleague recalled how she invariably became friends with and stayed in touch with the people who bought and sold properties through her agency. Born in Belfast and reared in Bundoran, Fox married Ed Douglas in 2005. She is survived by her husband, mother and two older brothers.