When first-time buyer Fran Carey was looking for a property, her heart was set on a house, “but it was short of what I could afford at the time,” she says, and one of the reasons she purchased her current home at 15 Bective Square, was because of the garden.
It’s a curious place as bar two, all apartments in Bective Square front on to the busy Phibsborough Road, but number 15 is behind tall electric gates in what resembles a house. She occupies downstairs and there is one apartment upstairs. Though the gardens are communal, she says, it’s just herself and the upstairs resident that make use of the green space beyond the secure car park. Added to that she has access from her living/diningroom to the garden through a set of patio doors. She says it “saved me a bit as it was like having another room during the first lockdown,” and as the apartment is set to the rear of the rest of the units, the complex to the front blocks out the sound from the thoroughfare out front.
Carey purchased the 53sq m (570sq ft) unit in 2017 for €252,000, according to the Property Price Register. She has replaced the kitchen and radiators and installed a new bathroom. Another selling point is the apartment has a bath – a rarity these days – and when she remodelled the bathroom, decided to keep it.
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Overall it’s a bright and airy unit that also benefits from own-door access and has a southwesterly aspect. It has two bedrooms, one of which is now her home office. She says her whole life is on the south side as her family is in Bray and she works in Sandyford, so she’s moving to be closer to both.
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It’s a safe secure spot – with private car parking behind tall electric gates – and the area is a stone’s throw from Phibsborough and Stoneybatter with trendy restaurants, clubs and sports facilities. It is also close to TUD at Grangegorman, the Mater hospital and the wonders of the National Botanic Gardens and Phoenix Park. Number 15 Bective Square, which has a Ber of D1, is now on the market through Sherry FitzGerald, seeking €325,000.
