23 Temple Gardens was a semi-d, but it had a large full length south facing back garden with no mews at the end (and it was a bit wider than many of the other back gardens in the row).
It also had one very solvent and eager bidder, who bid against themselves to a price that I do not think was really there.
The more prestigious, larger (c 5,500 sq ft.), detached, Thorndale 31 Temple Road went for 4.75m in Oct 2014 (16 months later). While Thorndale has a smaller site by Temple Road standards, it was still the same size as 23 Temple Gardens. irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/new-to-market/detached-grandeur-in-dartry-for-4-95million-1.1747242
Despite being detached, I don’t think Sunningwell 7 Temple Gardens is as good as 23 Temple Gardens (which has a very large fully south facing garden - and a separate mews option), but then I don’t think that 23 Temple Gardens was in the same league as the actual sale price it realised of 4.5m
They have taken the extreme over-pricing out of it, and at least brought the asking below the 4m barrier.
I’m not sure this will work quickly. I think the final pricing will be below this again.
Temple Gardens is in the top 4 roads in Dublin (Shrewsbury, Ailesbury, Temple Road). Poor planning means there are very few roads in core Dublin where, most, of the houses are of very high quality. Park Avenue, Cross Avenue and Avoca Avenue for example, have very lovely sections but then plenty of very ordinary sections (and even less than ordinary).
With a detached house in Temple Gardens sub 4m, it asks the question of several other c. 4m aspirants on myhome.ie on whether they should really by taking, at least, 1m off their asking prices (if not 1.5m in most cases):
I’m sure that the owners of Sunningwell 7 Temple Gardens are jumping for joy looking at neighboring 5 Temple Gardens recent appearance on the PPR for 6.5m. However, I’m sure that they began to realise that it was odd that their - almost identical house, internal condition, site size, site aspect - which has been on the market for over a year now with no takers sub 4m, did not attract such interest ? Never mind High Cross, around the corner, which is 4x the site size, over 1.5x the house size, and on an even better road, and fully south facing garden (vs. 7 and 5 Temple Gardens being fully north facing).
Was it someone (very rich + very stupid) with a fetish for the Number 5 in their address ?
5 Temple Gardens was a tax driven transaction (we have seen a few on Ailesbury Road, the most famous being Walford on Shrewsbury Road) where the new beneficial owners of 5 Temple Gardens are bringing the asset back into Ireland (for sale in many years time), it being a full five calendar years since the death of the original owner, and are taking advantage of a unique set of circumstances to inflate their new “base cost” as high as rationally possible (so as to offset even more potential future tax).
In fairness, I would have stopped at 5m (to at least give it some credibility), but they went for 6.5m ?
Been on a very long time now and despite it’s high price it seems to priced fairly given wath other houses in the area have gone for since this hit the market. The house on Albany Rd got 3.2m and one on Cowper and Palmerston Rd have got 3.3m since this hit the market. Would have thought this one would have sold for a good bit higher than those. I would question tho is it really for sale as it seems odd not to have sold.
It is a unique house on the road. The only detached house with the entrance at the side. The front entrance does not look very grand for the type house with lower ceilings in the front hall compared with it neighbours tho it does have atractive stain glass windows to the side in the hall which it could not have if the hall was located in the middle of the house. Maybe first impressions are not helping it.
