A house a short walk to the sea in Sandycove, Co Dublin might interest buyers trading down from larger southside homes. It’s what the late owner of this three-bed semi did around 25 years ago: her children reared, she moved back to the neighbourhood she’d grown up in, and settled in the 1930s house.

The downsizer will need to be well-heeled: 4 Marine Avenue, a 115sq m (1,235sq ft) three-bed – with a good view of the sea from an upstairs bedroom window – is for sale through Lisney for €995,000. The late owner modernised number 4 after moving in, extending the kitchen at the back, and maintained the property very well. Work included rewiring and replumbing while external walls and the roof space were insulated. New owners may want to revamp the kitchen and bathrooms again, but could comfortably move into the house while deciding what to do.

They might extend again, subject to planning permission, as quite a few houses on the road have already done: some have two-storey extensions at the side and back of their houses, for example. A garage at the side of number four could be knocked down to make way for this.

The house has a simple layout: on the right of the front hall are the sittingroom and diningroom, connected by double doors. The sittingroom has a deep square box bay window and a high timber fireplace; glazed patio doors open from the diningroom on to the back patio. The space is bright, with windows at the front and the patio doors at the back. All the windows are PVC.

The kitchen has pine units and was extended to the back to create a good-sized breakfastroom, opening through more sliding glass doors onto the patio. The extension created an attractive L-shaped back garden, where the patio steps down into a neat, manageable lawn. There’s a small understairs toilet in the hall.

Steep stairs lead to three bedrooms, two doubles and a single, and the family bathroom. The main bedroom at the front of the house has a deep box bay PVC window, like that in the room below: from here, there are good views across Scotsman’s Bay towards Dún Laoghaire pier.

There is off-street parking at the front of the house.

Marine Avenue (not to be confused with Marine Road in the centre of Dún Laoghaire) is a quiet street in Sandycove that links the seafront and Sandycove Road. It’s a short walk from the Forty Foot and the shops in Glasthule.