The best the northside could throw up would probably be areas such as Malahide, Clontarf or Sutton, where you could buy a similar home for €400,000 to €500,000.
But would you pay €1.1m? This is the asking price for one such property in hallowed Dublin 4, the first time this type of house has breached the €1m mark.
Dublin 4 is indisputably Ireland’s most expensive postcode. Filled for the most part with large, detached, period red-brick homes within reach of the better parts of the city centre office district, it has for years been the priciest place to buy a home in Ireland, even ahead of such prestigious addresses as Dalkey, Killiney, Howth and the showier parts of west Cork. Period houses in Dublin 4 regularly change hands for more than €3m. If you live on the country’s two most expensive stretches, Shrewsbury and Ailesbury, you’re looking at more than €7m for a red-brick pile.
Apartments in Dublin 4 are far larger than average, and cottages in the enclave are almost all cut stone and ornately bricked “railway” cottages which always fetch far more than their plainer counterparts.
In fact, the sheer quality of most homes in Dublin 4 makes it almost impossible to isolate the extent of the “D4 factor” — the sense of esteem attached to the D4 postcode which has become the holy grail for so many ambitious city professionals.
Advertisement
Rarely do the sort of modern homes which feature in other areas come up for sale here — there are only a small handful of pockets constructed in the 1980s and early 1990s.
That’s why the sale of 15 The Court in Donnybrook Castle estate is so interesting. Here at last is a house type which can be found in most suburban parts of Dublin — the modern, no fuss, four-bed semi.
The property has been placed on the market through the Lisney agency, which is confident of securing the seven-figure sum for the deeds. The red brick-fronted bay windowed home spans 1,330 sq ft in this gated scheme.
It comes with a double-glazed conservatory, a kitchen/breakfast room, a drawing room, a dining room, a utility room and four bedrooms, one of which has an en-suite bathroom. The attic is partially floored, and there’s a cobblestone driveway out front and a 57ft garden to the rear.
Taking the Rathfarnham modern four-bed as an example, it seems the D4 factor roughly doubles the price. Rathfarnham, of course, is nowhere near as central as Donnybrook, but to take the nearest example — Cowper Downs in neighbouring Dublin 6 — as a comparison would present problems, because agents say the prices here are also affected by the D4 factor by virtue of being so close.
Advertisement
But surely the whole attraction of having a Dublin 4 address is that you live in a super-sized period red-brick home or apartment rather than in a modern four-bedroom semi? So what’s going on? According to the agents, it’s all about downsizing, albeit on a grand scale.
Denis Beare of Lisney says: “It’s not such a high price when you consider the market for this type of property. Remember that there are very few houses of this type in an area full of extremely large residences.
“The market for this property comes from owners of larger homes who want to trade down and stay in the same area, but don’t want to lose their garden by moving to an apartment.”
According to Beare, it is quite typical for D4 empty-nesters and the retired to sell up and buy a substantial home abroad. They also want to keep a foot in the local social scene, which includes the prestigious Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club and a series of well-known rugby and cricket clubs.
“Sometimes a bit too much is made of the D4 factor, but you have to remember that Dublin 4 is within five minutes’ walk of the city centre and the area holds some of the best homes constructed in the capital,” says Beare.
Advertisement
“The other thing you have to remember is that Dublin 4 homes also tend to have good driveways, unlike a lot of city centre locations.”
Ironically, most of those who live in Dublin 4 still tend to drive to work in the city centre, although Beare says this is starting to change.
So if you fancy trading in your average family home for another average family home, but one in prestigious D4, you’d better be prepared to go large with your chequebook and make sure there’s room for seven-digit spaces, not forgetting your stamp duty bill to the government of €99,000.
And, of course, you’d better be trading down from something very special indeed.