Calling all renovators: a Georgian townhouse, €1.15 million, for the price of a large suburban semi, where you can get a tax break on the cost of the renovations undertaken.
Fans of historic buildings are romantics at heart. We love the elegance of their period features and the history held within their walls.
But it's an expensive hobby. Renovation costs are monumental, with the price of period properties trumping all other types of housing stock. Getting contractors with experience in the approaches needed would make your hair fall out.
Address: 40 Blessington Street, Phibsborough, Dublin 7, D07 T2H0
Asking price: €1,150,000
Agent: Mason Estates
The Living City Initiative offers help to those willing to take on the task.
It is a tax break scheme that operates in certain areas of many of the country’s towns and cities and offers a tax break on monies outlaid in the renovation of property within certain areas.
It has been designed to tackle vacancy and dereliction, increase housing supply, and regenerate historic inner-city and town centres.
Initially, it covered parts of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford. Earlier this year it was expanded to include the towns of Athlone, Drogheda, Dundalk, Letterkenny, and Sligo.
There are four main types of tax relief for qualifying work. In the case of number 40 Blessington Street, a seven-bedroom, five-bathroom Georgian gem at the entrance to The Basin, it is likely to be someone looking for owner-occupier residential relief.
This is income tax relief over 10 years for individuals refurbishing or converting a property as their main residence.
One of a pair of two-bay three-storey over basement houses, built circa 1800, the property has elegant proportions and is within this Living City Initiative map, which outlines all the areas of Dublin that fall under the scheme. Each location has its own map on its town or county council website.
The house extends to 370 square metres, which is about twice the size of a generous suburban semi. It boasts marble fireplaces, six-panel mahogany interior doors and classical 18th-century plasterwork throughout.
The stucco ceilings of the main reception room on the piano nobile, or first floor, are particularly notable.
Currently, it is laid out in five different units with some rooms subdivided by simple stud partitions. The rooms all have traditional single-glazed timber sash windows.
A winding staircase leads up through the property, which only has views of the basin from the kitchen on the first floor.
The property is BER exempt, and the large windows make the rooms light-filled. There is some damp evident in the rooms on the top floor, but really, you buy it and open up the walls you won’t know the extent of the works needed.
Realistically, the cost to upgrade may cost as much as the property itself.
The layout of these homes works well for subdivision. Might a couple of high-earning siblings or friends club buy it together and possibly rent out the basement level as a revenue stream towards mortgage repayments under the Rent A Room scheme?
It also has a surprisingly large garden. The property includes a mews at the back that is in need of complete modernisation but isn’t listed.
Subject to planning permission and a creative architect, you could construct something wonderful here with a roof garden that enjoys Basin views.
To qualify for the Living City Initiative, the minimum expenditure threshold is €5,000. Before you do any works, you need to apply and receive a letter of certification.
Since number 40 is a protected structure, employing a conservation architect to advise on the best approach and the materials to use should also be factored into costings.
The Irish Georgian Society lists conservation architects within its traditional buildings skilled register, which also lists building contractors and specialist trades.
The location is one of Dublin’s real secret spots. Blessington Street was laid out at the end of the eighteenth century, appearing in the alphabetical list of streets in Wilson's Dublin Directory for the first time in 1795. It terminates at the west end at Blessington Street Basin, constructed in 1810 as a city reservoir supplied from the nearby canal; it is now a public park, run by Dublin City Council.
Mason Estates is seeking €1.15 million.
