Malahide: €4m-plus: An eight-bed family home with a swimming pool in chic Malahide has potential. Property Editor Orna Mulcahy reports
One of the finest family homes in Malahide, a detached eight-bedroom house on the corner of Church and Grove Roads, is set to make over €4 million when it is auctioned jointly by O'Farrell Cleere and HOK on June 23rd.
Dating from the late 19th century, Roseneath is set on 0.7 of an acre of grounds that include an indoor swimming pool. It's the home of motor distributor Denis Mahony and his wife Joan who have lived here for 30 years but who now spend a good deal of time in Portugal.
Church Road, which leads directly off the main street, is considered the best address in the village and its larger period houses rarely come on the open market. Roseneath will be chased by local couples who want to be in the middle of everything, with shops and cafés nearby, three good schools in the immediate vicinity and a doctor's surgery just around the corner.
An added bonus is the potential in the long back garden where full planning permission has been granted for a detached four-bedroom house with separate access onto Grove Road. This would still leave a good-sized garden with the existing house, which is set back from the road with a large area of lawn in front of the house and excellent offstreet parking.
It's a spacious, rambling house, ideal for a big family, with a total floor area of 565sq m (6,089sq ft) that includes the pool room with changing space and sauna.
There is also a games room to the side of the house, accessed from the front garden.
There are three reception rooms, including a large drawingroom with a bay window overlooking the front garden and a handsome fireplace. It leads through to the diningroom with its elegant green and gold decorative scheme. A corridor beyond the diningroom leads to a series of store rooms and the kitchen, a spacious room with patio doors to the garden. Leading off the large entrance hall is an airy family room, while there is also a pretty understairs guest toilet.
Upstairs, the house really begins to ramble with bedrooms on three different levels, served by two staircases. The main bedroom, over the drawingroom, has tall windows leading to a balcony that's accessed from the landing. Of the remaining rooms, most are sizeable doubles, two en suite.
The house has been carefully maintained over the years, though inevitably new owners will want to put their stamp on it by redecorating and possibly extending.
