D4 redbricks go through the roof

Around the Block: Bad news for anyone trying to get a decent redbrick in Dublin 4.

Around the Block: Bad news for anyone trying to get a decent redbrick in Dublin 4.

With very few of them on the market, buyers seem prepared to pay almost anything to get that all important post code. Simon Ensor of Sherry FitzGerald appeared genuinely surprised yesterday to get €4.45 million for a semi-detached redbrick with a limited back garden at Claremont Road in Sandymount which he had been guiding at €2.75 million. With three determined bidders in the room, he got quite a bonus for the owners. The price is even more surprising given that 12 months ago, a larger detached house on the road, Glengarriff, made around €4.2 million - considered astonishing at the time. Elsewhere at auction, it seems that people have had enough of paying big prices for small redbricks in Ranelagh and Dublin 8. Several such homes were withdrawn this week, possibly because strong prices earlier in the year, fuelled by the Luas factor, pushed vendors' expectations over the limit. Generally houses in the €800,000 plus bracket are proving tricky to sell particularly in more outlying neighbourhoods, unless of course there's land involved. Big gardens are still attracting big prices as Lisney showed yesterday with its sale of a house on 0.4 acres in Sycamore Crescent, Mount Merrion for €3.4 million. The house is likely to be levelled to make way for up to four new houses.

Irish get UK awards

Two Irish property companies figured among the prizewinners at this week's Estate Gazette Awards in London. Sean Mulryan's Ballymore Properties got the "property developer of the year" while Hamilton Osborne King picked up up the honour for "property adviser of the year" in Ireland. An unusual feature was that the winners were not chosen by a panel but emerged after property professionals in both countries voted online for the companies that most impressed them. Former Government property adviser Peter Bacon, now heading up Ballymore's busy operation in Central Europe, was in London to pick up the award while HOK's Paul McNeive led a strong Dublin delegation at the Grosvenor House banquet.

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Angry architects

At the Royal Institute of Architect of Ireland's annual conference in Trieste over the weekend, architects couldn't fail to remark on the irony of being in Italy's capital of coffee - it's the home of Illy, the country's best-selling brand - and the snub of being refused planning permission for their own café at 8 Merrion Square. As they knocked back espressos in the Caffé degli Specchi in Piazza Unitá Italia, the conferencees were reassured that the RIAI had lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanála against Dublin City Council's decision to reject the proposed change of use of the front room from a library and bookshop. All present felt it was nonsense for the city planners to refuse permission on the grounds that a café would have a "negative impact on the fabric" of a protected structure and that drinking coffee would be "incompatible with the existing mix of uses around Merrion Square".

After all, as several of the architects noted, wasn't designer Louise Kennedy running a thriving fashion and lifestyle store at number 56 and didn't Helen Roden have an interior design showroom in number 82? It probably helped that two members of An Bord Pleanála, Angela Tunney and Michael Wall (both architects) were in Trieste too.

No collections by V de P

An article in last week's Property mentioned the services of the Saint Vincent de Paul for furniture collection. In fact the society no longer accepts or collects donations of furniture and its Tolka Quay depot is now closed. The society's 26 shops nationwide do accept donations of clothing and bric a brac.