With private access to Killiney Beach, garage storage for your classic car, 351 square metres of terraces and roof garden, along with sweeping views of Killiney Bay, this is a rather epic home.
When you look at 3 Newman at The Court Killiney Bay, in the seaside suburb’s Station Road, you expect its owner to be a tech scion or Iron Man, not a family man who sold up the big house on an acre on Killiney Hill Road almost two decades ago and moved in with his wife, whom he affectionately called his Viking.
Indeed, when they decided to view the property for the first time, they had to scramble up ladders.
It was a Saturday, and the development was still under construction.
Address: 3 Newman, The Court, Killiney Bay, Station Road, Killiney, Co. Dublin, A96 TD32
Asking price: €2.3 million
Agent: DNG Dun Laoghaire
The units were launching the following Monday morning.
“We had to climb a ladder to get to the last floor,” he recalls.
He also noted a vacant site beside it. The builder had his planning permission turned down to build another unit.
By way of negotiation, the builder offered to include it as a recreational area and garden.
The owner made him an offer.
"It will be sold by 8,30 in the morning" was the builder’s gentle riposte. The couple had just three hours to make up their minds.
“I never thought we’d live in an apartment, but she had already taken a look,” the owner says. And they were smitten.
In the negotiations, he managed to get the builder to include two storage lockups in the underground car park along with a full-size garage, the perfect place to park your classic car.
The property has its own private lift access, coded security access, and a private entrance to Killiney Beach.
The lift opens into a hall with an inner hall to the left.
To the right are the big sky and sea views from a courtyard.
With the footprint of a double penthouse, 3 Newman has 315 square metres of outside space, the scale of which is nothing short of enormous.
At 80 square metres, the courtyard alone extends to the size of a decent two-bedroom apartment.
On the same floor, measuring almost 75 square meters, is a big balcony off the living room where you can see all the way from Sorrento Terrace in the north south to Bray Head.
There’s a second, by comparison, small balcony that extends to 11 square metres off the primary bedroom.
That’s a total of 166 square metres of outdoor space on one floor.
That’s before you climb the spiral staircase to the roof terrace.
This runs the depth of the building and is 185 square metres in size, that's almost one 20th of a FIFA football pitch.
There’s no hot tub here, too Hollywood for this owner, but semi-mature specimen trees provide colour and shelter.
Built by Martin Doran’s Ellen Construction, the development features Dura limestone with a combination of honed and sandblasted finishes to break up the elevation.
Internally, high ceilings maximise the natural light which comes in through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The open plan living room extends to 56 square metres and includes a dining area and kitchen, the only thing in this residence that is small.
It had an island, but his wife didn’t like it, so it was taken out and replaced with a peninsula. But who needs an island when Dalkey Island commands your attention from the front glazing?
It took the couple about two years to get planning permission for the sunroom at the front. It’s an addition that will be welcome on the days when there’s an easterly blowing, and you can watch the white horses rolling in in comfort.
The bedrooms are at the back. Both doubles are ensuite.
“When you walk out of [the primary] bedroom, you walk into the sky,” he says.
You can tell the time of year in the property, too.
In the living room, “the sun almost touches Dalkey Island at the summer equinox, before it starts its journey back towards Bray Head”.
It is stunning, and it is peaceful, he says.
“It’s a little corner that’s difficult to find. It is the footprint of a double penthouse.”
His wife passed away last year, and he is now moving closer to his children and his grandchildren.
The landscaped gardens are based on the original Victorian design to complement the existing trees on the landward side of the site, many of which are more than a century old.
The B2 Ber-rated residence extends to 175 square metres with a further 315 square metres of outside space.
With two underground parking spaces and a third surface space, agents DNG Dun Laoghaire is seeking €2.3 million for the two-bedroom, two-bathroom penthouse.
