With its award-winning Seascape development in Clontarf nearly sold out, veteran northside developers MKN Property Group is set to start its newest project nearby.
In December 2007, the developers purchased Haremount, 726 Howth Road, a substantial detached house on about 0.6 acres, which had been for sale with an asking price of €2 million.
The initial plan was to squeeze a new house in the side garden, however with the market beginning to collapse this was never realised and the property was subsequently rented out. It must have come as a pleasant surprise, then, when the neighbouring house, Lonsdale, 728 Howth Road, came up for sale in 2012 – offering the developers the opportunity to combine the two sites and to create a large-scale development on the desirable Dublin 5 road.
Lonsdale occupies one of the largest sites in the Blackbanks area and was offered for sale initially at €1.8 million. It took two years and a price cut to shift it, but the house and its one acre of gardens eventually sold to the McKeon family’s MKN in 2014 for €1.4 million.
The McKeons are now set to construct 16 family homes on the combined 1.6-acre site. The proposed development includes seven five-bedroom houses fronting on to Howth Road, each ranging in size from 193sqm to 209sqm, with nine two-storey 156sqm terraced houses to be built to the rear in three blocks. Given the demand for family homes in the area, the development is likely to be another resounding success.
The McKeons are no strangers to Howth Road, with some of the family calling the road home.
They have also developed a number of the finest schemes on the Clontarf end of the road, such as 150 Howth Road, Auburn at 118 and Ashbrook at 120-128.
