Would you believe that a house hasn’t come up for sale in Arranmore Road for more than 20 years?

It seems that residents of this lovely leafy street, just off Herbert Park in Donnybrook, ignored the property speculation of the boom and the forced sales of the recession, and instead just quietly got on with their lives. They doubtless enjoyed the short walk to Donnybrook village in one direction, and Ballsbridge through Herbert Park in the other. Their children would have gone to any one of the excellent schools nearby, and later maybe UCD or Trinity, all within walking distance.

The road has the calm of a place where families have grown up and thrived, helped by the one-way system that prevents it becoming a commuter rat run and preserves its atmosphere of being right in the middle of things, and yet a world away.

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You can see how sought after the area is from the prices reached on Argyle Road, which runs parallel to Arranmore: €3.05 million for Number 16 in October 2012, for example. Number 4 Arranmore Road is being offered at auction on September 25th by joint agents Herlihy and Lisney and has an AMV of €1.95 million. This is closer to the €1.65 million that nearby number 7 Pembroke Park sold for in January of this year.

Whoever buys this house though will need to have a little extra in the pot.

The basics are good: the house was built by G&T Crampton and dates from the Edwardian period, back when Ball’s Bridge still had its apostrophe (which you can see from the cast iron drainage covers in the back garden). It’s laid out over 200sq m (2,150sq ft), but it also has a large enclosed back garden, there’s plenty of room to extend and add a bigger kitchen/dining area as some of the neighbours have done.

This will almost certainly be first on the list, as although the current kitchen has a nostalgic appeal, it isn’t really to contemporary taste.

There’s a generous hallway, and a pair of connected reception rooms that run front to back, with a good bay window to the front and French windows at the garden end. Both have open fires.

Upstairs there are four bedrooms, none of which is en suite, and a large attic bedroom up in the eaves. There’s also a separate garage and off-street parking.

Number 4 Arranmore has all the makings of a fabulous family home, after all it already has been one, for generations.