Proof that the Dublin property market had gone mad emerged yesterday in Lisney's auction room. Sorrento House, a Victorian home on 1.5 acres of seaside garden on Sorrento Terrace, Dalkey, was knocked down at a staggering £5.9 million. It breaks all previous records in Dublin and makes Mount Mapas, which sold last autumn for £2.3 million in Killiney, look like a cutprice summer chalet. Auctioneer Mr Tom Day told the packed auction room that Sorrento House, with its unique seaside garden, was an opportunity of a lifetime. He opened the bidding at £1.5 million, a sum which just a couple of years ago would have bought you at least two houses on Sorrento Terrace.
Minutes later it was all over and members of the Lavery family, who have owned the house for almost 50 years, were celebrating with champagne. "Who bought it?" was the question being asked down a hundred mobile phones as the gavel had dropped. It was bought, with considerable flair, by Mr Michael O'Gorman, solicitor, of A&L Goodbody, on behalf of a client. Once upon a time solicitors were in the running for the best Dublin houses but those days are long gone.
The new owner of Sorrento House is likely to be a financial or software whizz kid, or a showbusiness personality with money to burn. Or it could just be a builder with plans for a string of seaside houses.
Mr O'Gorman's client obviously has money in bagfuls judging by his easy style of bidding.
"Sure, I'll throw in another £100,000", he told Mr Day when bidding had reached £4 million. By then there was only one other candidate in the room, Mr Hugh Carty, a solicitor, whose client was at the end of a telephone telling him to go another £100,000 and another and another. There was no beating Mr O'Gorman though. He waved his hand and told Mr Day to wrap the whole thing up and go home at £5.7 million.
Mr Carty came back with a last shovelful of money but there was yet another hundred grand in the O'Gorman kitty and so it was sold at £5.9 million for an end-of-terrace house. Plus £531,000 in stamp duty, and the matter of Mr O'Gorman's fees. At least the new owner won't have to pay property tax since it was abolished last year. It would have cost an extra £86,000 per annum. The owner of Sorrento House, Mrs Dorothy Lavery, who is in her 90s, is moving, with many regrets, to a smaller house.
Sorrento House is a magical rambling house with wonderful reception rooms, dungeon-like cellars and sunny bedrooms overlooking the sea from every angle.
The gardens have room for tennis or croquet and paths leading down to a private bathing place. The neighbours include film director Neil Jordan, and property developer Mr Robin Power.
