There is a slew of property shows on the various platforms and TV channels whose narratives range from returning an existing abode to its former glory, to fantasy builds and millionaire pads for the one percenters.
Very few demonstrate the workings of a very active sector within the renovation game – the boutique developer. These are the people who buy run-down houses to flip or invest in small infill sites and apply for planning to build three or four houses.
Many in this sector are talented tradespeople who have climbed the construction ranks and refurbish a couple of properties a year. Small development groups are one of the key demographics in the house flipping business and, in doing so, they also contribute to the rehabilitation of really tired and run-down housing stock.
They comprise builders, tradespeople turned developer and occasionally partner with an architect. They also know the true cost of rehabilitation.
Brothers Donal and John Doyle of Hillport Construction are one such outfit. Both carpenters, they prefer to buy properties in poor condition, Donal explains. He estimates they’ve reconditioned about 18 properties over the past five or six years, but it’s becoming an ever more crowded pond in which to fish. Before it had been easier to buy these, but demand is such that “everyone is interested and this has pushed up the prices”.
When they bought 14 Albert Court East last year it had lain empty for about 30 or 35 years. The double-fronted single-storey house is sequestered in a narrow side lane off Grand Canal Street that links Albert Court East to Albert Place East. The landmark pub to the front is Becky Morgan’s on Grand Canal Street Lower, opposite the Macken Street intersection.
The property is listed on the property price register as having sold for €275,000 in March 2021.
It’s an area that has transformed since the docklands became a tech quarter and now boasts hip cafes serving brunch at weekends, as well as a slew of food trucks including melted cheese masters Griolladh and southeast Indian specialists Dosa Dosa, who have set up a permanent space here.
The new house owners raised the roof level to the front and removed a central chimneybreast to give a larger footprint. They also got rid of an outside toilet to create a small, but private, yard.
The layout now opens into a decent-size hall with bedrooms on either side of it. Both are good-size doubles with the main to the left, which has a small, internal shower en suite bathroom. The main bathroom, a shower room, is to the rear of the other bedroom.
The living area is an open-plan space, that spans the width of the property, with the kitchen to the left where there are sliding doors out to the yard. The living area to the right is naturally lit from above by rooflights.
The house is warmed throughout by underfloor heating and by working with Ber assessor Aongus O’Dowd, the property now has a very decent B3 Ber rating for what is still a period property.
Its location makes it eminently rentable. A couple could bring in a third party under the rent a room scheme, or an expat might buy it to have a place to return to and let it in the interim years before they move back.
Extending to 65sq m / 700sq ft the property is seeking €585,000 through Mason Estates, the same agency through which the brothers bought the house. “When we buy from an auctioneer we sell with the same firm because it knows the back history,” Donal explains.
The house has off-street parking in the narrow lane to the front.
