During the boom years, high-end homeowners plumped for the auction route to sell. It’s a sales method making a return, as evidenced by this fine Richmond Hill house in Monkstown with an AMV of €1.75 million.
As gazundering and renegotiations increase, high-end homeowners are opting to take the auction route instead of a private treaty sale to sell their properties.
It’s fast, effective and delivers a result on the day.
Buyers of such high-end homes are becoming increasingly price sensitive.
Many properties do not achieve their asking price, as evidenced by the recent high-profile sale of estate agent Sherry FitzGerald founder Mark FitzGerald’s property, which made headlines for selling for 10 per cent less than its €3.5 million price tag.
Address: 1 Richmond Hill, Monkstown, Co. Dublin, A94 D8V0
AMV: €1,750,000
Agents: Lisney
This follows a season of gazundering and attempts by buyers to renegotiate offers down following surveys, prompting some vendors to auction their homes rather than take the protracted private treaty approach.
As an approach, it doesn’t work for every property, says director of residential at Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty, Ann-Marie McCoy.
The firm has had several successful such sales in the last year.
It works for homes that are rare, and for some executor sales, she explains.
"All the due diligence is done. All the legals are done in advance. It eliminates anyone in a chain.”
Best of all, the successful buyer knows they have a home when the gavel hits the stand.
Such motivated buyers should take a look at number 1 Richmond Hill, one of Monkstown village’s prettiest roads.
Number 1, a detached villa-style residence, has a three-storey return, a sizeable back garden that extends to 27 metres and is screened from the road by mature trees.
Refurbished after it last sold in 2017 for €925,000, the layout was reconfigured to take advantage of the light-filled rooms at entrance level where the ceiling heights are 3.7m.
The owner installed central heating, rewired, repaired the roof, refurbished and refitted all the windows, and refurbished the floors and fireplaces.
Now a four-bedroom house of 220 square metres, it is accessed via a set of granite steps and opens into a porch and hall.
The eat-in kitchen is now to the left with contemporary white units and a sleek island set in front of the fireplace.
There is a light-filled pantry off it.
The property has been staged by Upstaged Properties for sale.
Across the hall is the drawing room.
The elegant, dual-aspect space is pared back enough to allow you to see what’s on offer, period features that include volume and lots of light, all with a 21st-century back-end that requires no further deep refurbishment.
Anyone who’s had work priced will know only too well the worth of that kind of work in the current market when this kind of job on a period house amounts to telephone numbers.
Up on the return is the principal bedroom, which has a sizeable ante room that is used as a walk-in wardrobe.
Down a level from the entrance hall – this is a house with a lot of stairs – is the main bathroom and a fine family room, which could also be another bedroom.
At garden level, down another set of steps, two very large double bedrooms share a smart shower room with sanitaryware by Philippe Starck for Alessi.
One also has a study area that opens out to another terrace.
On the far side of this floor is a side entrance through a very smartly appointed utility room.
A half level below, at basement level, is the fourth double bedroom and an adjoining office. The ceiling heights here are lower.
There is an AMV of €1.75 million in the four- to five-bedroom property, which is BER exempt through agents Lisney.
The property previously came to market in 2022 seeking €1.85 million.
Monkstown is one of the most popular areas of Dublin with high-end buyers, according to buyers' agency Inhous.
