WIW Sorrento House, Sorrento Terrace, Dalkey, Co. Dublin

What's it Worth? (WIW)
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Sorrento House, Sorrento Terrace, Dalkey, Co. Dublin €12,000,000
6 Bed Semi-Detached House 714 m² / 7685 ft² For Sale


It is back - Sorrento House in Dalkey now at 12m

Interesting owner, Terry Coleman, outbid Lochlann Quinn in 1998 to pay highest price for a house in Ireland at Euro 7.5m
independent.ie/irish-news/secretive-sorrento-owner-made-fortune-in-car-alarms-26180477.html

Tried to sell at the peak for 30m in Sept 2006, reduced to 20m in Mar 2007 but failed to sell.
independent.ie/unsorted/property/dalkey-gems-a-snip-at-10m-off-26276071.html

The key headwind is that Dalkey / Killiney has fallen behind to D4 (and D6) for aspirational Irish buyers - for example:
“If there has been a bad buy over the last five years, Elsinore on Coliemore Rd in Dalkey was it. Bought for ?6.45m in 2000, it was auctioned with a guide of ?6.3m in September 2004. It was withdrawn. Sherry Fitz hawked it for more than a year at ?5.95m before finally doing a deal about a fortnight ago.”
independent.ie/business/irish/2005-the-year-the-bubble-didnt-burst-26215112.html

While the home has been extensively renovated since its 1998 purchase, I’m not sure it is worth c. 6m an acre quoted.
Walford (PIN link below) sold for just over 7m an acre (14m), previously having been Ireland’s most expensive house at 58m
thepropertypin.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=32663
I’m pretty sure Sorrento House would never have sold anywhere near 58m at its peak.

With the best D4 trophy homes at c. 25-33% of peak 2006/07 pricing (closer to 33% for best assets and roads - see Milverton link thepropertypin.com/viewtopic.php?p=737797#p737797), can’t see Sorrento getting close to the 12m asking (don’t think it would have traded at 30m).

Would expect something closer to c. 7.5m which would be its original 1998 price.
There a quite a few Dalkey / Killiney mansions only making their turn of the century prices even with extensive renovation.

Same strategy as Deepwell - put up for a big figure in case an International buyer / Embassy buyer can be found on the basis that they are getting for 25% of EA “peak value”, however as per Deepwell, I don’t believe that these quoted “peak values” stack up, and the current asking it closer to 50% of truer peak value which almost nothing - even in D4 - is selling at in the trophy end of the market. :angry:

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Instead of WIW this should be labeled IWW? – It’s Worth WHAT? Did the EA actually try to drive from Dublin city centre (or even from Dundrum Shopping Centre) to Dalkey during rush hour or school drop off/pick up hours? Who the heck will pay 12 million for that experience, and end up in the Dublin suburbs? Great view I guess, if you like watching Irish ferries or can wake up very early to watch the sunrise (wrong seashore for the sunset, sorry about that). Interested to hear contrary views.

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I’d put up with the commute to live there…

Anyway, the type of person who would be in the market for it is probably not rushing to their desk in the city centre every morning. Links to the airport probably more of a factor.

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Video here:

irishtimes.com/life-and-styl … -1.1563074

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I imagine if you bought this place, you’d also afford a nanny to do the leg-work getting kids to/from school, a housekeeper to do your shopping/dry-cleaning, a cleaner etc. etc. You could outsource all the responsibilities you want to!

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there would be no all games in the garden either as it’s very slopey

Agree with OP comments something around a 1998 price seems more like it -Can’t see this getting anything close to asking

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Loved the bit where the EA says, “in the evenings you can watch the sun setting over Bono’s House.” No you can’t - that’s just the sun disappearing over Killiney Hill - long before sunset! (Howth is only place in Dublin where you can see truly stunning sunsets and enjoy sea views.)

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I think the house has a heliport on its land so car commuting mightn’t be an issue here :slight_smile:

Its certainly a one off house, interesting that it is an end terrace yet has so much land with views over Killiney and Dublin bay. I think saying that people with this money should only have eyes for Shrewsbury is Bull. I would imagine people with €12m to blow on a house would only care about what they want. Really hard to value this house because its so unique, maybe that’s why the EA chose the heavy asking as it could be the ideal Dublin house for a very rich person.

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and this: “With all principal reception rooms and bedrooms having views out over the water, Sorrento House is both a perfect family and weekend holiday home”

Where’s the PPR if this is your holiday house?

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Monaco!

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Do you think there is someone out there with 10 mil, googling this house and saying to themselves “if only I had another 2 mil”?

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definitely! not having that last 2 mil is a bitch

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I wrote about this back at the start of the year but never got around to publishing it. Have just updated it now and published it:
dublinestates.blogspot.ie/2013/1 … alkey.html

No comment on the price, but I love this house. All in all the owner is into it for supposedly just over €20,000,000 having bought in 1999 and renovated. The total cost of bringing the house to its current condition from how it was before (ie.renovation/extension/landscaping/bespoke features) seems outlandish at what equates to c. €1700/sqft, however it was done in the early 2000’s and it seems no expense has been spared, from air conditioning throughout to handmade silk panelled walls.

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Fascinating and very comprehensive overview of the history of the house SoCoDu. Well worth reading for anyone who is interested. A couple of things stand out from your research: (1) Sorrento Terrace would have been even longer if it wasn’t for that pesky potato famine and (2) planning was refused for three more houses on the site as far back as 1948.
And just to add another snippet of information. This house was used as a location for the 1977 film version of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man. I’ve just checked my DVD version (which was given away free with the Sunday Times a few years ago) and the house is clearly featured in the opening sequence and throughout the film as the family home of Stephen Dedalus.

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Great post SoCoDu - a fitting addition to the blog
Have done a reasonable amount of very high end residential re-fits but have never spent anywhere near 1,700 sq ft
Candy & Candy spend c. 1,000 sq ft max in London (due to their lavish but tasteless internal fit-outs / furniture).

I wonder if they had to drill deep into solid rock to build large basement structures / pools etc?
It would be hard to spend above 500 sq ft on the pure structure (i.e. not including internal finishings)
1,700 seems high to me :angry:

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irishtimes.com/news/crime-an … -1.2208467

Court hears €12m Dalkey house is country’s ‘unluckiest’

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If they get within an asses roar of the crazy 12m asking, they will be the luckiest house in Ireland 8DD

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Another bog standard Dalkey gaff by the look of it…

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Sorrento House must be “shrinking”


Fernside in Killiney (Damon Hill’s old pad) was quoted as on “c 2 acres” each time it came to market over the last decade.
The new owner in 2013 however discovered when h went for planning , that his site is just over 1 acre !
thepropertypin.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=17183&p=832031&hilit=fernside#p832031

We could have the same “shrinking” effect going on with Sorrento House.

It is now for sale with both Sherry Fitzgerald and Lisney (not often you see that level of desperation).

In Sorrento’s major planning in 1999 (D99BA/0558), they say the site is 7,558 sq m (1.87 acres).

However in their 2003 planning (D03A/0092), they say the site is 5,962 sq m (1.47 acres).
(this planning application also includes - finally - a site map from the Land Registry of the entire plot, including garage).
https://dms.dlrcoco.ie/Exe/tiff2png.exe/B0006N72.PNG?-i+-r+75+-g+15+D%3A\ZYLABD~1\INDEXD~1\PLANEXTC\TIFF\2185\00000000\B0006N72.TIF

Looking at Sorrento House with Google Earth (and the D03A/0092 site map), you can compare the site with say nearby Nerano Lodge (over 1.5 acres with land to the east and north), or even several of the large - and properly documented - regular shaped sites in Killiney (i.e. Eirene). I don’t think it possible that Sorrento House is a “c 2 acres” site. They may have ‘pumped up’ the plot size (using a judicious assessment of the tide and shoreline or other) to get the increased planning density applied for at the time in 1999 ? Nobody bothered to check their figures given the complexity of the boundary. I would guess that the actual “land” (i.e. the part with green grass on it) is closer to being just over 1 acre, and the shoreline (depending on definition) is the rest.

(or perhaps the rising sea levels shrunk the site since 1999, which means at current rates, it will be underwater by 2020).

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Sold for 10.5m
irishtimes.com/life-and-styl … -1.2314934