Wingfield is Brian M Durkan’s first attempt to “dip his toe back in the house-building market” after a seven-year hiatus during which the company concentrated on constructing schools and sports pavilions. Booterstown Wood and Merrion Woods, two apartment developments by Durkan that front onto the N11, at Mount Merrion, are some of the family builder’s more familiar constructions. The company also built Carrickmore, a huge estate of 1,000 units in Citywest.
“With Wingfield we’re targeting families,” Durkan says. “People want to buy decent sized, A-rated family homes.”
They have gone “above spec”, with each house, with extra-high ceilings at ground level – 2.7m instead of the standard 2.4m – and all bedrooms fitted with wardrobes by Cawley’s Furniture and cabled for TV. There’s smart sanitaryware in the bathrooms and the glossy kitchen units, designed by Nolan kitchens, come topped with black pearl granite and include Zanussi appliances. The estate is in the Co Dublin part of Bray to the front of the Solus Tower Estate and its signature tower.
The builders also offer house hunters the option of an open-plan ground floor.
“Some families want a second living space to escape to, others don’t,” Durkan says. In the show house, a souped-up version of what’s actually for sale will be on display. Here, the ground floor is split into two distinct spaces, a formal sittingroom with a stone mantelpiece and Wanders stove to the front and a kitchen with breakfast bar and room for a sofa to create a second lounging area overlooking the garden. A second house is presented and fitted with exactly what is included in the price, right down to the tiling options and the paint colour on the walls. This property will have interconnecting doors between the sittingroom and the kitchen.
Each house has a garden of between 70m and 80m with a garden shed and a side passage to ease the taking in and out of bins.
The four-bedroom semi costs €410,000; the four-bedroom detached house costs €465,000 through agents Hooke and MacDonald. Both styles measure 120sq m (1,290sq ft). Numbers one to seven have south-facing gardens. Numbers eight to 17 have east-facing gardens.
The showhouse is open today and tomorrow Friday, May 30th from 4pm to 6pm and on Saturday, May 31st from 2pm to 4.30pm.
