The home stagers have gone the whole hog at St Anne’s on Coliemore Road in Dalkey – right down to the crisp linen napkins on the dining table, set for a dinner party that will never happen. There’s the smell of fresh paint and new carpets throughout, calm neutral colours and new furniture in every room.

It’s difficult to tell how much this will influence likely buyers – St Anne’s is for sale for a strong €2.7 million by Sherry FitzGerald – largely because no matter how nice the furniture is it can never distract from this house’s real selling point, the sea views.

Whoever built St Anne’s, a typical Victorian two-storey with bay windows in the living rooms at ground level and steps up to the front door, set it facing the sea so there are views from all front windows – out to Dalkey Island – and from windows in the gable walls.

Simple layout

It’s a simple layout, four rooms downstairs, kitchen, dining, livingroom, study, and four bedrooms upstairs with a family bathroom and a shower room. Nice period details include stained-glass windows, particularly on the landing.

At 213sq m/2,300sq ft, the price appears more about the views than the living space and new owners will probably seek to extend at the rear, to make a larger eat-in kitchen. In the private rear garden is a lovely stone coach house with 41sq m/441sq ft – its two rooms with mezzanine have been styled attractively for the sale but it clearly needs modernisation if it is to be used as guest accommodation or a work studio.

There’s a vehicular entrance to the side – builders tend to be very keen on that – which will help facilitate whatever work the buyers embark on.

While the back garden is private and enclosed, the front – where there is off-street parking for a couple of cars – isn’t, and at this upper end of the market buyers tend to like privacy. But again the trade-off are those sea views from just outside the front door.