The Criminal Assets Bureau has stripped Martin Cahill's family home, dug the back garden and painted everything magnolia prior to auction. Bernice Harrison reports

Viewers who go along to Martin "the General" Cahill's house expecting a cross between Tony Soprano's bling and Del Boy's tower-block tat will be sorely disappointed.

The Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) which has finally put the notorious criminal's former home at 17 Cowper Downs in Rathmines on the market with a price tag of €775,000, has taken the professional sellers' mantra of neutral colours and minimalist décor to heart.

The Cab has painted every room magnolia and stripped out everything. Even the kitchen has gone.

The floorboards creak because the Gardai lifted them during the extensive pre-sale search and there are holes in the odd wall and ceiling for the same reason.

Outside the patio has been lifted and relaid and earlier last month the 24m back garden was dug up when a bag of suspected swag was found under the pigeon loft.

Buyers - and presumably the neighbours - will be relieved to know that the pigeon loft is also gone.

Given the sorry state of the house, the selling agent Clodagh Murphy of Gunne quite rightly points out that what the new buyer will be getting will be little more than four walls, but with a great garden and in a top location.

Cowper Downs is a leafy road in the middle of one of Dublin's most desirable neighbourhoods and all the houses, with the notable and screamingly obvious exception of number 17, are well maintained with fresh paint and polished brass door knockers.

With their fake Georgian pillars, spacious layouts and luxury details such as an en suite off the main bedroom, they were the last word in modern sophistication when they were built in 1984 by the Cosgraves.

Designed for upwardly-mobile professional families, Cahill was one of the first residents.

Such has been the notoriety that came with "the General" - three movies have been made about his colourful family life and criminal times - that houses on the road have been slow to come on the market and even slower to sell when they do.

Number 17 with 125sq m (1,345sq ft) has four bedrooms, an interconnecting livingroom/diningroom and a large, though completely bare, kitchen.

The integrated garage is not included in the square footage. It has one of the best back gardens on the road, being large and private.

And thanks to the Cab's digging, it's ready for planting.

Neighbouring houses are now valued in excess of €1.2 million. The significantly lower price tag on number 17 reflects the poor condition and is an attempt to in some way address the house's notoriety - although it is a unique situation and therefore difficult to quantify.

The house, which is now fitted with a state of the art alarm by the Cab, will be sold at auction through Gunne on June 14th and the price of €775,000 is a disclosed reserve, not a guide.

That means that if and when the bidding reaches that amount, it will then be sold to the highest bidder.

To discourage the merely curious, viewing is strictly by appointment.