Stillorgan: from €660,000Head concierge Ted and his team will pamper residents in the swish Grange apartments in Stillorgan, Co Dublin. Property Editor Orna Mulcahyreports
It's that time of year when student accommodation becomes a burning issue with thousands of young people moving to the capital to take up residence. For most of them it will be a hard slog to find a place to stay but, for a lucky few, this year's gaff will be a luxury apartment on the southside.
Among the first residents moving into the swish Grange apartments on the Stillorgan Road, Co Dublin will be students whose parents have invested in a place for them to stay.
Selling agent Catherine O'Connor of Savills HOK expects that more parents will be among the buyers of the latest phase of the scheme which goes on sale this weekend. "We're certainly getting good interest from parents who want to get their children on the property ladder, and who clearly are in a position to help them." Lucky darlings!
The Grange, located off Brewery Road, is about as far from the traditional student flat as you can get. The apartments are big and airy with marble-tiled floors, gleaming Italian-style fitted kitchen with all appliances, immaculately designed bathrooms with trendy shelving and directional lights. And then there is Ted. Ted Robinson is the newly appointed concierge who will head up a team of four dedicated to making life easier for the residents round-the-clock.
Ted, a cheerful fellow in a sharp suit, will do more than take in your awkward packages and arrange to let the plumber in to fix your washing machine. Taking their cue from the doormen and concierges of Manhattan and Paris, his team will handle deliveries and online orders, book theatre tickets and taxis, manage apartment fit-outs and even arrange the flowers. He will also make sure that, if you want to eat Italian, you get a table in an Italian restaurant that you like. The basic concierge service will be included in the service charge which will work out at approximately €1,900 per month for a two-bedroom units. Additional services such as dry cleaning and car washes will cost extra at rates to be arranged.
Each resident, students included, will be issued with a leather bound folder detailing the services that Ted and his team will provide - as well as lots of useful local information from the bookies to the butcher, as well as doctors and dentists, pizza parlours and spas. Eventually, The Grange will have its own spa and gym, as well as shops and a café. The entire development, which includes a large office complex, is due for completion in 2010.
While it is not the first concierge service in town, it's certainly aiming to be the most sophisticated, modelled on five-star hotel service.
Developer Ray Grehan of Glenkerrin Homes always planned to pitch The Grange way above the competition, and now with the new homes market softening, these extras could prove the key to sales.
Two-bedroom apartments will cost from around €660,000 to include one car-parking space. They are larger than average with floor areas from 76.4-86.8sq m (822-934sq ft). This price is for a ground floor unit with upper units costing an additional €5,000 per floor. Three-bedroom apartments with 90.7sq m (976sq ft) are priced from €780,000 including designated car-parking.
Three-bedroom penthouses will be priced from € 1.1 million to €1.75 million depending on size.
Prospective buyers will be able to view finished apartments in the first block to be completed and, while this block is entirely sold out, the units in the surrounding buildings will be almost identical.
There are three apartment types to view, a one-bedroom unit, a good-sized two-bedroom apartment and a large and airy penthouse.
Though most of the units now being finished were sold from plans at the height of the boom in late 2005 and early 2006, the development still has plenty of appeal for investors. With the rents in the city at record levels, two-bedroom units at The Grange are expected to fetch €2,000 a month, and one-beds likely to rent at €1,500.
Designed by O'Mahony Pike Architects, the blocks have a fashionably high quota of glass, with all the units having floor-to-ceiling windows opening onto deep balconies.
Early signs suggest that this will be a very nicely landscaped scheme with all parking underground and a deep boundary of mature chestnut and sycamore trees, as well as a large central garden complete with seating and barbecue area. The communal areas are impressive with wide corridors floored in deep pile carpet. Apartments are entered through extra tall and solid doors, while interior doors are also tall and wide with contemporary door furniture.
Each apartment has a good-sized storage space as well as a utility room space behind doors. Kitchens are cleverly laid out and custom-designed with a full range of appliances, including gas hob, oven, fridge-freezer, washing machine and dishwasher. Units are finished in a choice of plain, timber or cream gloss. Glass-fronted cupboards are lit from the inside, while worktops are made from hard-wearing quartz stone. Standard throughout all units are high-speed internet connection points, plasma screen TVs in the main bedrooms, and plenty of storage.
Glenkerrin Homes has a number of high profile developments underway both in Ireland and in the UK. The company has recently lodged for planning permission for a large scale development on the former vet college site in Ballsbridge, and is drawing up plans for an exclusive residential development in Howth village, having recently agreed to buy the Techcrete site there.
