Deemed one of the top 10 most expensive homes of the year when it sold for €4.41 million in 2014, Victoria House at number 81 Ailesbury Road is likely to make the list once again a decade on, having recently sold for about €10 million.
While the details of the sale have yet to be recorded on the Property Price Register, it is understood Sherry FitzGerald achieved its asking price for the period townhouse on one of the capital’s most prestigious roads in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, although the buyer’s identity remains unknown.
Victoria House is the most expensive house to sell in the capital so far this year and is second in the country to Ballynatray House in Co Waterford, which, along with its 850-acre estate, is believed to have been bought by British vacuum-cleaner magnate James Dyson for an eye-watering €29.25 million for the house alone.
An Irish Times review of Victoria House published in April said its owners had “spar[ed] no expense to create a superb period home in walk-in condition with just about everything a wealthy buyer might demand”.
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Extending to 550sq m (5,910sq ft), the six-bedroom property was renovated and extended in 2017, and features a home cinema, a hidden games room, a Hampton’s sunroom and a Clive Christian kitchen, as well as a self-contained two-bedroom guest apartment.
The property is complemented by a spacious south-facing back garden designed by Bloom gold-medal-winning landscape architect Jane McCorkell. It backs on to four acres of greenery at Danesfield, the German ambassador’s residence.
Victoria House is located on “the sunny side of Ailesbury Road”, according to Sherry FitzGerald, close to Donnybrook Church.
And it looks as though this sale has set the benchmark for the road’s more substantial properties, with the asking price for a similar refurbished period home at number 7 Ailesbury Road being dropped from €12 million to €10 million by selling agent Bergins last week.
Also in walk-in condition, number 7 features a glazed double-height diningroom extension to the rear and a natural swimming pool in the back garden.
