Househunters tend to have a deal-breaker – something a potential purchase simply has to have, a positive capable of outweighing nearly all negatives.
A south-facing rear garden is one – for obvious reasons, the same goes for off-street parking and there’s the eminently sensible one of rear or side access to a back garden. Bringing bicycles and bins, garden waste and lawnmowers through a house is never ideal.
The appearance on the market of 7 Glenvar Park in Blackrock is an indication how far someone is prepared to go to get a side entrance. The detached 1940s family home with a garage to the side appeared on the property price register just over six months ago – when it changed hands for €2.075 million.
But the buyer, who lives next door, wasn’t interested in the house at all, what they wanted was a side passage for their own house. And that’s what they got – in the few months since that off-market sale went through they have knocked the garage of number 7 and pushed out their boundary wall a couple of metres to the side – not the entire length of the 45m back garden but just enough to give them front-to-back access.
Renovation
Now that’s done – a neat job it is too – number 7 is once again for sale, on the open market this time, through Lisney, for €1.95 million.
The houses built on this road off Cross Avenue are large family homes with vast gardens, and number 7 being detached is one of the larger ones on a significant plot. It was extended twice over the years giving it five bedrooms, a larger kitchen and 2,637sq ft of space.
New owners will most likely demolish those additions – the two storey extension to the side and the single storey one to the rear – which are now dated looking both inside and out. That will be done as part of a general renovation incorporating all aspects of the pebble-dash house.
Extending to the rear isn’t going to impact greatly on the very long and wide rear garden which is full of mature hedges and flowerbeds with a vegetable plot at the very end. There is off-street parking to the front – and side access.
