Mill Hill Missionaries sold Dartry House and the adjoining 3.9 acres for €30 million in May 2005 to developer Eugene Renehan’s Walthill Properties.
The 807sq m (8,693sq ft) house which is set out in seven luxury apartments is now for sale, through the receiver, asking €2.4 million through Savills. VAT, at 13.5 per cent, is payable on the purchase of this property because VAT was reclaimed on all of the refurbishment costs when the house was redeveloped.
The vast Victorian house once belonged to newspaper magnate and entrepreneur, William Martin Murphy, who founded the Independent in 1905. Murphy was also involved in Clerys department store (then Clery & Co), the Imperial Hotel and the Dublin United Tramway Company.
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He bought the house in 1888 and it is thought that the Disneyesque turret was added during his tenure.
Murphy is best remembered as leader of Dublin’s employers in their clashes against “Big Jim” Larkin in the 1913 Lockout when he was chairman of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. Larkin described him as a “capitalistic vampire”.
But there was more to Murphy than his reputed iron will. He had a strong social conscience and was active in the St Vincent de Paul society. Murphy died in 1919, and the house remained in the family until 1958.
Hotel standard
In 2009 the house was subdivided into seven apartments by architect Niall D Brennan whose respectful restoration let the property's period features sing. These include sash windows with shutters, fine plasterwork and the remaining marble fireplaces. The property's common areas include an entrance hall with parquet flooring and ornate coving and a statement staircase.
The finish throughout is hotel standard with paint schemes and cabinetry sympathetic to the restoration of a period property. The bathrooms are five-star.
The apartments vary in size from 61sq m (662sq ft) to 132sq m (1,420sq ft) and include one one-bedroom, three two-bedroom units and two two-bedroom duplexes whose Ber ratings range from B2 to B3.
Dartry House is currently let under short term residential tenancy agreements. Typically these are for a fixed 12 month period. Six of the seven apartments are currently let and the house is producing a gross income of about €162,600 per annum with rents ranging in price from €1,200 to €2,400 per month. The annual management fee for the property is €18,634.78 per annum.
If the property is bought before the end of 2013 and held for at least seven years, the capital gain attributable to that seven-year holding period will be exempt from Capital Gains Tax.
The house is adjacent to Orwell Park, the new-build development set on lands that once belonged to the house. Phase one has sold out through agents Sherry FitzGerald. The development will include much of Dartry House’s south-facing lawns and grounds. A small grass area marked by a high hedge is all that will remain in big house ownership. The grounds to the front have car parking spaces for 14 vehicles – two for each apartment.
