Around the corner from Morton’s supermarket and the smart shops of Dunville Avenue, Annesley Gardens is a boutique scheme by Seabren Developments that saw a new street rise from a secret site of 1.25 acres, just off Annesley Park.
Its purchase without planning made headlines in 2018 for it had a guide price of €4.9 million and made more than €4 million over the asking when the hammer came down at €8.7 million.
Given the period setting the architecture riffed on the surrounding house styles, but the end result by practice Metropolitan Workshop is unashamedly modern.
There are chimneystacks, for example, a feature these A2 Ber-rated homes do not need; but as well as helping the houses to blend in, they function as light wells.
The developer’s decision to set the units out over two and a half storeys, much like the period properties that surround them but minus the heat-leaching charm of those still in original condition, was brave.
The L-shape layout comprised two terraces, one of three four-bedroom homes built in buff-coloured brick and the other a longer terrace of 17 houses, a mix of three and four-beds, constructed perpendicular to it, in warm Ranelagh red brick.
Set out over three floors, the showhomes were designed by two of Dublin’s hottest design talents. The scheme pitted Róisín Lafferty of Kingston Lafferty Design, against Suzie McAdam, who has a shop in Monkstown and briefly graced our TV screens as a judge on season 7 of RTÉ’s show Home of the Year. The former decorated the three-bedroom unit while the latter took charge of the four-bed showhouse.
At the launch, prices for the three-beds, which ranged in size from 145sq m (1,568sq ft) to 151sq m (1,628sq ft), started from €1.325 million. All nine of these have been sold. The four-bed homes, which extend from 168sq m (1,813sq ft) to 185sq m (2,001sq ft), were priced from €1.65 million to €1.8 million.
Three of the 17 four-bed units remain within the redbrick, and, 17 months on from launch, the prices have shifted slightly north. These new homes range from 173sq m to 185sq m and in price from €1.8 million to €1.85 million through agents Sherry FitzGerald.
McAdam previously worked with Seabren delivering a very smart pair of four-storey Georgian-inspired properties on nearby Highfield Road. The three-storey over garden-level homes came to market seeking €3.25 million apiece in September 2020 and sold almost immediately to the same buyer. According to the Property Price Register these achieved €2,702,827 and €2,938,453, which exclude VAT at 13.5 per cent.
Her look for Annesley had a similarly crisp and contemporary mood. The kitchens have ribbed units, designed by McAdam and built by Moore O’Gorman, who did all the joinery. Richly veined and honed calacatta viola marble covers the worktops and tall splashback.
The mood in the living room is far softer with the walls painted a soft sage green that looks equally good at night as during the day.
All three homes have west-facing gardens. Two also include the development’s signature terrace at first-floor level.
The largest of the three has been configured differently so that the additional square metrage of the terrace is included in its main bedroom and en suite.
