Huge interest likely in late Victorian property bearing a 'good address'

NO matter how good or bad the house, the fate of any re-sale on the Cross Douglas Road seems to be that new owners go for broke.

Always deemed 'a good address' the houses along this interconnecting stretch between the main and back Douglas roads are always sought after.

There's been more than a handful of sales here in the last two or three years, and one of the better homes here, Edenvale, breached the €1 million mark with Sherry FitzGerald. Good and all as that already-extended home was, with almost an inevitability it now sports a planning notice for further extensions to the back and side, and other recent e750,000 house sales have also seen considerable injections of cash, and 1980s and 1990s extensions ripped out and replaced.

So, the writing is on the walls for Glenthorne, the latest here to hit the property market, with the resident family's decision to sell after 20 years in situ. It is "priced to sell at €850,000," says Ann O'Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald, who got the €1 million mark for the considerably larger Edenvale down the road last summer.

At the top end of the road by the main Douglas Road, opposite the commercial florists Floral Decor, Glenthorne is a red-brick late Victorian semi-d with a long, west facing garden - with rear vehicular access.

This access is via a laneway serving eight or ten homes in a row, and several homes have old garages at their boundaries. Anyone like to try for a mews conversion here? It might well come in time, particularly as the former Nemo Rangers GAA pitch land on the other side of the lane is set for a large up-market residential development by Fleming Construction, set to lodge for planning in the coming weeks.

Glenthorne, a family home with five bedrooms and c1,700 sq ft over three levels, has been spruced up a bit for sale, paint touched up and so on, but it is a practical certainty that builders will go in before any new owners' furniture is carried through the front door.

It has been invested in, however, and has been partially re-roofed, has a small add-on extension housing the oak kitchen, and subsidence issues were addressed in the 1990s.

It has front and back reception rooms, which could be inter-connected if the house is to get a major new extension behind, the bathroom (with big cast-iron bath) is on the first floor return, there are two first floor bedrooms, and three more at second floor level.

Heating is by oil, and most of the windows are replacement double glazing, while the main living room bay window is still single glazed. There are good fireplaces at ground and first floor level.

Across the road, nearby, a more standard, mid 1900s four-bed semis called Droum, is on the market with agents Casey Kingston, under offer at €460,000 and likely to sell for closer to €500,000.