A partially completed apartment development based on the former Shieling Hotel on the Howth Road in Raheny, Dublin 5, will appeal to developers and investors when it goes on sale from today at a fraction of its original cost.
Ross Shorten of Lisney and Owen Reilly Property Consultants are seeking €8 million for 75 high-quality apartments – 12 of them completed and the remaining 63 in shell and core condition. The price equates to a valuation of €166,666 per unit.
Unlike so many housing and apartment schemes abandoned when the property market crashed, Shieling Square was substantially finished before development work ceased about three years ago.
One source has suggested that the remaining work could probably be completed at a cost of about €5 million.
Restoration work
From the outside, the apartments look like they are ready to move into though restoration work on the former hotel has still to be completed.
It has planning for four two-bedroom apartments and a three-bedroom home as well as a residents’ lounge and small gymnasium. External footpaths are in place along with extensive gardens which have been tastefully planted with shrubs and trees.
The largest of the four-storey blocks with 38 apartments has had three lifts installed. It includes a large three-bedroom penthouse with an extensive rooftop garden with clear views along the north Dublin coastline towards Bull Island. This unit is likely to sell for at least €500,000.
The complex, designed by architect Niall D Brennan, has an overall floor area of 6,382sq m (68,695sq ft) in four separate blocks including the old hotel.
Of the 75 units in all, 54 of them are two-bedroom apartments with an average floor area of 85sq m (914sq ft), 13 are one-bed units with 58sq m (624sq ft) and eight are three-bedroom homes extending to 120sq m (1,291sq ft).
The site also includes a basement car park with 124 spaces as well as 12 garages and a fitted heat and power plant.
The joint agents are not indicating what the apartments are likely to sell for when completed but with the market rapidly recovering because of the limited supply available and the pick up in rents, it will be no surprise if the completed three- bedroom apartments sell for at least €375,000 while the two-bed units could be expected to fetch about €300,000.
Location
One-beds would probably make about €225,000.
The location is also likely to prove a strong selling point being close to Dollymount Strand and St Anne’s Park.
The hotel, previously known as the Old Shieling Hotel, was a highly popular venue during Dublin’s traditional music and ballad boom in the 1960s and 1970s.