Saturday started off promising. House Spy was running late and delighted to see that the agent looking after apartment 4, 382 North Circular Road, Phibsboro, D7, advertised as a one-bedroom duplex penthouse 75sq m (807sq ft) asking €230,000 through Drumcondra-based agents Move Home, was still in situ, the front door helpfully left open. One other couple was still having a gander around. They were first-time buyers and while House Spy (HS) thought the south-facing roof terrace with views of many of Dublin's landmarks was pretty fantastic, they had concerns about the property's storage heating. The agent was affable. He hung back, sticking to the upper floor so that you had time to privately pick the place apart before coming face-to-face with him. As HS drank in the views he informed me that there was an offer of €230,000 on the property. On view Saturday, November 22, 9.30am to 10am.
Rain, rain, go away was what the agent at 50 Seacourt, Clontarf, D3, must have been thinking when she got the short straw to spend her Saturday afternoon waiting for would-be buyers to materialise. The skies darkened as House Spy crossed the threshold of the four-bedroom detached property, 154sq m (1,658sq ft) in size and asking €780,000 through agents Sherry FitzGerald. Talk about a welcome. Potential sellers should be led around this house as an exercise in how to show a lived in family home. There was an open fire burning in the hearth, no the agent didn't light it, and while the kids' toys are on display in their bedrooms, they just made the rooms feel lived in rather than cluttered. It was now almost lunchtime and there was only one other couple in the house. They then ran off to see yet another house and then the heavens opened leaving HS trapped in the house making polite conversation with the agent. She was great on local schools and honest about the north-east aspect of the back garden (if the agent says he or she doesn't know then chances are it is north-facing. She didn't procrastinate at all). Do many nosey neighbours still come through on open viewings, HS wondered? No, she said, putting the decline down to the fact that they can nose away online from the privacy of their own homes. Viewing by appointment.
The rain finally eased off and at 40 Botanic Avenue, Drumcondra, D9, described as a three-bedroom terraced house, originally asking €299,950 through Castle Estates but its price had been dropped by €40,000, over 13 per cent, to €259,950 mid month, there were several groups viewing the mid-terrace house. Sub-divided into two flats, it was in need of deep pockets to modernise it. "There is an offer of E200,000 on the house", the agent said, discharging the words in what was almost a whisper. Viewing by appointment.
Viewers were giddy as mountain goats at a mid-Monday afternoon showing of number 20 Myrtle Street, Phibsboro, D7, advertised as a four-bedroom end-of-terrace house, 63sq m in size, asking €190,000. Each potential buyer came with an entourage. The hall was papered with junk mail fliers as they all trooped over the threshold of the house, the group of nine or 10 filling it to its capacity. A trio of sisters from Co Clare were looking to buy a place in Dublin before the end of the year, hastened by the forthcoming introduction of Capital Gains Tax on investment properties sold within seven years. One wanted to make an offer. Another sister wasn't that keen. A mother and father were viewing the premises with their grown-up son. They were not interested in taking on the kind of renovation work needed to modernise this house. "If we get rid of him great, but it's not urgent," she said.
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