Experienced househunters can always spot a rental a mile away. Even high-end ones and 125 Strand Road in Sandymount certainly fits that category. It’s been rented out for the past three years – the rent was circa €3,000 per month – while the owners, who now live elsewhere, decided when to sell. The tenants have moved out and it is for auction by Lisney on July 24th with an AMV of €1.2 million.
So the fine period house is a little unloved in places, with scuffed paintwork and stained carpets and a slightly bare feeling but that is not going to matter to buyers. Strand Road in Sandymount always sells well – anything in Sandymount sells well – and this two-storey-over-basement house looks out to sea and is one of four in a particularly smart terrace at the corner of St John's Road.
Three-storey extension
A lick of paint and new carpets will bring this lovely three-bedroom house back to what it was like in 2006 when the owners extended and did a major makeover. It now has 267sq m/ 2,873sq ft, lovely proportions, a fine back garden and a rare thing on this stretch of the coast road, easy access to private parking for a couple of cars.
The owners bought in the late 1990s and in 2006 they added a three-storey extension at the back and generally upgraded the rest of the house. So at hall level there are two fine interconnecting reception rooms, with lovely proportions, the usual period features and sea views. Upstairs there are three bedrooms. Two to the front, a single and a double and a third, a very large double bedroom at the back of the house. Each has a fireplace, tall ceilings and sash windows.
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Down at basement level there are two principal rooms – through the top of the window to the good-sized living room to the front there are glimpses of the sea. A sliding door, with custom-designed coloured glass inserts, divides this room from the kitchen at the back of the house. Green-painted timber units are topped with a light grey granite – and there are plenty of them. The island unit is fitted with the hob and sink. This room opens out onto a suntrap patio.
The three-storey extension added space on each level. Upstairs it made room for a family bathroom, at hall level it created an open-plan home office, with access down to the garden and down at garden level it made space for a big utility room and a wet room. The utility room opens off the kitchen and has glazed doors opening out onto the patio.
Part of the work also included some eco features including the installation of solar panels and – at the time water charges were starting to be talked about – a large water tank under the patio.
New owners might want to reconfigure the unusually large utility room, perhaps making it into a breakfast room because at present there is only space in the eat-in kitchen for a small table and four chairs.
The back garden is a little overgrown but according the agent it is 28m (92ft) long – although that may include the good-sized patio directly outside the kitchen as it doesn’t feel that long.
A particularly attractive feature of 125 Strand Road is the terrace it’s in – a well-kept quartet of smart looking houses, set back from the road with vehicular access from St John’s Road. There is parking in a gravelled area for a couple of cars. The owners have an informal arrangement whereby they chip in annually for the upkeep of the gravelled and planted communal area out front. There is pedestrian access onto Strand Road.
