Bargain! Evicted couple's home only 900k.

lazygal

Anyone tempted? Alison O'Riordain might be tempted to upgrade!

MICHAEL PARSONS

THE PLUSH south Dublin home from which an elderly couple were evicted two months ago is for sale with a price tag of €900,000.

St Matthias Wood is a gated enclave of five houses off the rather dreary Church Road on the outer fringes of Killiney, close to the N11 and Junction 16 of the M50.

The front door to Number 4 is painted in a reassuringly masculine shade of Garda Síochána blue but the lock is broken – a first clue that this is no ordinary house sale. Two cheerful, tabloid-reading security guards, hired from the other side of Dublin, are ensconced in a vast kitchen, getting an eyeful of how “the other half” lived.

In a cobbled yard outside, a tiger-striped, green-eyed pussycat miaows pitifully. The poor craythur – a stray, allegedly – claws at a rubbish bag which, happily, yields a half-eaten sandwich.

A boom-time fat-cat now reduced to scavenging scraps.

The owners of the house have vamoosed. On April 18th, in the most high-profile eviction since the Great Famine, Brendan Kelly (71) and his German-born wife, Asta (63), were ejected in the full glare of the media.

Oh, how the silk curtains in Ireland’s richest suburbs must have twitched as scenes normally confined to Victorian prints were re-enacted in the clipped-hedge south county heartlands.

Castle Rackrent meets Wisteria Lane.

Mr Kelly bemoaned the “absolutely brutal manner” adopted by the bailiffs and said “we might as well be back in the 19th century” – an era when cold-hearted landlordism was rife in Ireland and weeping Mayo shawlies were frequently turfed out of humble cabins.

. . . a reminder of the days when we were ‘worth it’


KILLINEY €900,000: Public sympathy for the couple evaporated when it emerged that they had assembled a vast portfolio of properties – including 13 apartments in London – and hadn’t made a repayment on the Killiney house’s €2.2 million mortgage to the Irish Nationwide Building Society for three years.

The asking price now represents a startling price drop since the Kellys paid a reputed €3.2 million for the house – just eight years ago – when it was newly-built by the Castlepark Building Company in 2004.

The slightly claustrophobic, secluded development is shoe-horned into the former grounds of a mansion. Number 4 is a redbrick, three-storey, neo-Victorian detached house with off-street parking for at least three cars. The house, named “Kilbarron” in gold lettering on a pale marble plaque set in a perimeter wall, is for sale by private treaty through the Dún Laoghaire branch of Douglas Newman Good.

Estate agent David Dobbs described it as a “beautiful family home” but the 353sq m (3,800sq ft) of accommodation, while in very good nick, requires an infusion of character and cosmetic re-touching.

A spacious, marble-tiled hallway leads to a very large livingroom with a solid beech floor, a library and an open-plan kitchen and conservatory.

Upstairs, there are five bedrooms – three en-suite – arranged over two floors and some have views towards the Dublin and Wicklow mountains.

This is the type of house which was referred to as an “executive home” during the years of our national folie des grandeurs and has all the paraphernalia of the L’Oréal “because you’re worth it” era – including central vacuuming, a surround-sound system and a video-display intercom system. Those were the days, indeed.

An attractive, west-facing garden – not quite as big as it ought to be – is nicely paved and planted but has no lawn and is marred by a (removable) large water feature which looks like, and may very well be, a hideous contemporary art “installation”. Another eviction looms.

4, St Matthias Wood, Killiney, Co Dublin

Description : Redbrick, three-storey, neo-Victorian detached house with off-street parking

Agent : Douglas Newman Good
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/property/2012/0621/1224318353022.html?via=mr

My name is URL

Is that an ad or a rant?

Spread

What about Brendan O Connor? But the neighbours might get up a petition about old Shar-Pei himself. Apologies to all Shar-Peis for analogy

mikemac1

House names are for people on country roads

This house is number 4, why on earth would they give it a name?

Kilbarron is in Tipp, not Dublin

Still, its better then Irish people who name their house El Dorado

Pantsface

would only consider buying if they came with it, then i could keep them in the roomy utility room

My name is URL

mikemac1 wrote: »

House names are for people on country roads

This house is number 4, why on earth would they give it a name?

Kilbarron is in Tipp, not Dublin

Still, its better then Irish people who name their house El Dorado

There's a house on my road named Morningwood. I hate to imagine what goes on in there.

the groutch

great that this story dissipated so quickly when they realised that nobody cared.

Abi

lazygal wrote: »

Description : Redbrick, three-storey, neo-Victorian detached house with off-street parking

Agent : Douglas Newman Good
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/property/2012/0621/1224318353022.html?via=mr

Just goes to show the idiocracy of the idea of buying in South Dublin. A mock Victorian build with off street parking.

I have off street parking. It's not a house pretending to be something it is not, however.

Pompous reluctance to come back down to earth cost these people their home. Even if I had close to a million to spend, it wouldn't be going on 'neo' anything.

Howjoe1

is the tent still outside?

Pantsface

Abi wrote: »

Just goes to show the idiocracy of the idea of buying in South Dublin. A mock Victorian build with off street parking.

I have off street parking. It's not a house pretending to be something it is not, however.

Pompous reluctance to come back down to earth cost these people their home. Even if I had close to a million to spend, it wouldn't be going on 'neo' anything.[/QUOTE]

so posh

Gummy Panda

mikemac1 wrote: »

House names are for people on country roads

This house is number 4, why on earth would they give it a name?

Kilbarron is in Tipp, not Dublin

Still, its better then Irish people who name their house El Dorado

If I win the Euro Millions, I'll buy it and rename it El Casa de Puta

neighbours would love that

My name is URL

My name is URL wrote: »

There's a house on my road named Morningwood. I hate to imagine what goes on in there.

House down the road from me called "Gay Haven".

Teyla Emmagan

They have put cobblelock over every square inch of space outside the front of the house, I absolutely hate when people do that.

I had a good look on myhome anyway, I won't be going for it. It's a bit bland, and neo anything is always really naff.

Sunnyisland

Gummy Panda wrote: »

If I win the Euro Millions, I'll buy it and rename it El Casa de Puta

neighbours would love that

Is that house of the bastard

Boombastic

I'm waiting for this one to come on the market


No house name though. I would call in neo-stylee!

amacca

realies wrote: »

Is that house of the bastard

My understaning of spanish is limited but im always happy to speculate about things I know very little about ...anyway It could mean lots of things depending on what part of Spain/portugal you is hailing from..all of which would probably annoy most uptight conservative neighbours who overpaid for upmarket properties



it could mean house of ****.........fantastic

it could mean house of prostitute or house of whores or indeed the most likely whorehouse....wonderful

it could mean house of bitch......only o.k imo


if the title was to be extended to El Casa de Puta Madre .....it could be house of mother****ers or indeed mother****er house .....sublime, and a personal favourite of mine

if it was to be extended to El casa de la puta madre...then people from the north of spain might think the house was named ......... the house which is the **** or the house which is the bomb....a little neo sh1t if you ask me and pretentious in its own ghetto way fo sho

Pantsface

they both looked like a right pair of smug kunts so good enough for them

i'm feeling cruel tonight - its all this rain

christmas2012

you know why slick grease ball estate agents and bankers can get away with this carry on of 900k? because we allow them to,we validate their pricing by running out in droves like little lemmings and panic buy..

thank god there is a stand off in the markets and people are simply not buying like they used to,thats why the houses are cheap now..

if we buy into their bull**** of house prices are going to rocket(in our borrow and pay back the germans economy?!),then we are going to be at their mercy again,and they show themselves to be quite merciless with 900k 500k and 250k prices when people simply dont have the money... **** them

Fratton Fred

Abi wrote: »

Just goes to show the idiocracy of the idea of buying in South Dublin. A mock Victorian build with off street parking.

I have off street parking. It's not a house pretending to be something it is not, however.

Pompous reluctance to come back down to earth cost these people their home. Even if I had close to a million to spend, it wouldn't be going on 'neo' anything.

The House is more Ballybrack than Killiney as well.

Shryke

Lay off with the merciless German rocket talk. Maybe a bit less "we". The only things I've ever panic bought were fairly small things. Alcohol just before ten, that kind of thing. I wasn't freaking out at the time either. The economy was what it was. It's a shadow of its former self, things have changed.

That old couple owned a load of property if I'm not mistaken? You think a little grace would have been in order.

lazygal

christmas2012 wrote: »

you know why slick grease ball estate agents and bankers can get away with this carry on of 900k? because we allow them to,we validate their pricing by running out in droves like little lemmings and panic buy..

thank god there is a stand off in the markets and people are simply not buying like they used to,thats why the houses are cheap now..

if we buy into their bull**** of house prices are going to rocket(in our borrow and pay back the germans economy?!),then we are going to be at their mercy again,and they show themselves to be quite merciless with 900k 500k and 250k prices when people simply dont have the money... **** them

So will I arrange a viewing then?

blindside88

JamesL85 wrote: »

My name is URL wrote: »

There's a house on my road named Morningwood. I hate to imagine what goes on in there.

House down the road from me called "Gay Haven".

Is that "gay haven" in Carlow?

admiralofthefleet

will it end up derilict like a good few houses already on church road

Funkstard

That article is amazingly bitchy and spiteful. On the front page of the residential section too - I'd say the estate agents aren't happy.

Lando Griffin

I would hate to be living in the other houses in this gated estate, can you imagine the type of people that can afford 900k.

admiralofthefleet

Fratton Fred wrote: »

The House is more Ballybrack than Killiney as well.

its around the corner from ballybrack village and the leafy cromlech fields