Malahide: €3.85mNumber 18 Abington is one of the largest houses on Malahide's ' millionaires' row', writes Bernice Harrison

Traditionally, houses in Malahide don't go to auction. Even at the height of the property boom, houses - particularly at the top end of the market - sold quietly by private treaty.

There's a theory that it's because the buyers will always be people who already live in this salubrious seaside suburb and such over-familiarity might lead to an outbreak of bidding shyness in the auction rooms.

The last house to come on the market in Abington - Malahide's, and indeed some would say Dublin's, most upmarket housing estate - sold this time last year within a month of going on sale for €3.875 million. And that at a time when the property market was starting to feel a cooling breeze. Now, another house, a much larger one, in Abington (number 18) is on the market, and the agent O'Farrell Cleere is asking €3.85 million.

Abington has been a highly desirable address from the day in 2000 when the first showhouses went on the market. The price tags and sheer scale of the detached houses meant that it was soon dubbed 'millionaires' row'. Two of its newer residents include the Taoiseach's grandchildren, Jay and Rocco, and Ronan Keating was famously one of the first buyers.

There are 50 sites in the manicured, gated community and, with 577sq m (6,213sq ft) and a 0.8-acre plot, number 18 is one of the larger houses.

It has five bedrooms over three floors and, as the owners have lived here for just three years, everything feels very new. For the internal layout of their house they opted for a dramatic double height entrance hall with a commanding double staircase leading up to a landing with a minstrels' gallery. It is floored throughout in creamy marble. Downstairs there is a livingroom, a family room, a formal diningroom and eat-in kitchen.

Upstairs the five bedrooms are on two floors. Three have large en suites; the main bedroom has a dressingroom; most have built-in wardrobes; and two have access to terraces overlooking the back garden. There's also a games room and a home office on the top floor.

The specifications of the interior fittings throughout are high. John Daly custom-made the country-style kitchen units as well as the wardrobes; the utility room, the size of a large kitchen, has been fitted with the same country-style units; wenge-wood flooring is in the reception rooms and the bathroom fittings are smart and contemporary.

To the front (behind electric gates) is parking for four cars in the formally landscaped garden and the back garden is mostly lawn with an area of mature trees. There's also a patio with access from both the family room and the kitchen.