The tale of Dublin’s property market is somewhat captured in a grand Victorian house on the capital’s embassy belt, which has been home to bedsits but also rented by a chief executive for a whopping €15,000 a month.
17 Raglan Road in Ballsbridge is back on the market with an asking price of €5.25 million in 2022, less than 100 years after it spent half a century laid out in bedsits.
During the Celtic Tiger years it was bought by property investors who employed an architect-led team to restore the house to a single-family residence – apparently sparing no expense.
The refurbishment of the end of terrace red brick house, led by the late John Meagher of de Blacam & Meagher Architects, saw the removal of all internal floors, walls, windows and roofs, with the original staircase the only exception.
The house’s outer walls were fully insulated, double-glazed windows installed, underfloor heating and a central vacuum system added, along with wiring for telephones, a sound system, television and security system.
Italian craftsmen were employed to fit marbles imported from Carrara, Italy to furnish the five bathrooms and two guest restrooms, while twin boilers were installed externally in purpose-built housing, “thereby eliminating internal mechanical noises.”
The interiors of the house were “faithfully restored,” with any remaining original cornicing salvaged and recreated, and period fireplaces were sourced and remote-control gas fires installed in the main reception rooms.
Perhaps the most unexpected upgrade is a Hamptons-built winter garden and the home's light-filled, state-of-the-art kitchen.
After this labour, the five-bed house was placed on the letting market in 2010 asking for €15,000 a month – amounting to €180,000 in annual rent – and for a number of years was the luxury rental home of the CEO of a publicly traded company.
The house would be worth €20,000 per month in today’s rental market just over a decade later, according to Lisney Sotheby's International Realty, the agents managing its sale.
However, its location in a rent pressure zone does not allow for such a jump and it will instead be sold as a more permanent residential home.
The house's next owner looks likely to take the form of a wealthy international buyer who does not even plan to spend all 12 months of the year in their €5.25 Ballsbridge pad.
Perhaps they might kindly list the spare room on Airbnb for the rest of us.
