A substantial refurbishment opportunity will arise shortly at the corner of Merrion Road and Sandymount Avenue in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, when two adjoining period houses and two mews houses at the rear are offered for sale by Sherry FitzGerald on the instructions of receivers Kavanagh Fennell.

The superbly located property opposite The Four Seasons Hotel and the RDS includes two large interlinked period semi-detached houses at 78 and 89 Merrion Road which previously traded as the Redwood Lodge guesthouse.

There are also two adjoining mews houses at the rear, at 1 and 2 Spafield Terrace, also in need of upgrading.

Sherry FitzGerald does not exaggerate when it predicts that the property has “enormous development potential.”

While the days of guesthouses – or at least some of them – may be numbered because of the over-development of hotels and the competitive room rates offered by them, the two enormous red-brick houses with a floor area of at least 836sq m (9,000sq ft) offer the opportunity to divide them into a range of apartments which would be much sought-after in this location.

Rear mews

The number of residential units could be significantly increased by redeveloping the two relatively modern detached mews houses at the rear into further apartments.

The property has the added advantage of spacious off-street car parking in both the front and rear gardens.

Sherry FitzGerald is quoting €4 million for the entire property or, alternatively €3m for the two period houses and €1,250,000 for the mews houses.