Address: Hendre, St George’s Avenue, Killiney,
Co Dublin

Description Six-bed modernist-style house with home cinema, gym, terraces and sea views
Agent Ganly Walters

Enormous, imposing, trophy home, spectacular views: the cliches come rolling in with a house like Hendre. But in this instance, they’re true.

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At just under 640sq m (6,900sq ft) and perched on a hillside overlooking Killiney Bay, the house could easily be an embassy residence, a corporate let, a film star’s getaway or a rock musician’s lair. None of these potential occupants would feel out of place in the area either, as you can (almost) look down on Bono, who lives on nearby Vico Road, from one of Hendre’s five terraces.

The house is for sale through Ganly Walters for €3.65 million. Built about seven years ago, it is laid out over three floors in a modernist style and sits on an acre of land, with mature trees providing shelter and privacy.

Electric gates
Electric gates keep unwanted visitors at bay. Once inside, a flight of steps leads to the entrance on the middle floor and into a diningroom with French windows through to the back garden. To one side of this is a livingroom, complete with its own bar/kitchenette area, so you'd never suffer the embarrassment of serving cold canapes or warm champagne to your guests.

The kitchen is to the other side. It has a massive marble breakfast bar and every kind of built-in appliance you could possibly wish for. In case you thought they’d forgotten the wine fridge, it’s around the corner in the utility room (just as a back-up to the wine fridge in the livingroom bar, naturally).

Upstairs is the master bedroom and a second bedroom, both of which have doors to their own terraces. The master bedroom is oriented so that you could lie in bed and gaze at the incredible view. It also has an en suite and dressingroom.

Down at garden level – a house like this has no affinity with words like “basement” – there is a gym, wet room, sauna, steam room, home cinema, laundry room, study and an office that has an odd little return area, in which there is a solitary chair. You could make someone feel very small by asking them to wait there.

Corporate uses
A further four bedrooms are on this level, all of which are en suite. These are perfectly nice rooms, one with a terrace of its own, but after the drama of the top floor they feel less wonderful. However, the separation of these from the main bedrooms lends itself to potential corporate uses for staff or guests.

The garage can accommodate up to four cars, so perhaps we can add racing-car driver to the list of potential buyers.

The house is designed and finished in a style and to a standard that manages to transcend Celtic Tiger chic, but still murmurs success. Previously let to corporate clients, it is impressive rather than homely, but if that’s what you’re after, Hendre is the house for you.