A LARGE Victorian house on 2.5 acres and overlooking the sea at Dalkey was sold yesterday for £1.95 million, the highest price ever paid at auction for a Dublin house.
The previous record was set last May when a Dublin businessman, Mr Des McEvaddy, paid £1.55 million for Pitcairn, a seven bed room detached house on Shrewsbury Road, Dublin 4, which is in need of total refurbishment.
There were two bidders for Bartra House at the Lisney auction yesterday. Bidding opened at £1 million, and the five bedroom house was declared on the market at £1.75 million by the auctioneer, Mr Tom Day. It was eventually knocked down to a Dublin estate agent, who was acting for an undisclosed buyer. The underbidder was a south Dublin businessman.
The owner, Mrs Helen Stephenson, and her late husband, businessman Noel Stephenson, paid £500,000 for the house on 5.5 acres in 1981. Two years ago part of the grounds, including a Martello tower, were sold for £775,000. An expensive apartment development, Bartra Rock, has since been completed on the site. Last year the largest apartment in the development sold for £540,000.
Mrs Stephenson has retained part of the original grounds, where she plans to build a new home. The remaining 2.5 acres include a wide frontage on to the rocks running down to the high water mark.
Bartra House is one of the finest seaside residences to come on the market in recent years. It was built in 1840 as a summer villa by the Earl of Carysfort.
The house has an astonishing 10,000 square feet of space, much of it in superb reception rooms, including two large Victorian conservatories and a ballroom.
Upstairs there are five bedrooms, four with en suite bathrooms. The lower ground floor has a large self contained apartment and offices.
