It’s not surprising that 12 of a development of 26 new homes built in a quiet corner of Blackrock, Co Dublin, have already been sold, and a number of others reserved. The 25 apartments in Woodlands Grove – a mix of one, two and three-bedroom units in a five-storey development – plus one detached mews house are the kind of smart high-end new homes likely to appeal to downsizers with large houses in south county Dublin.
Most of the units are two-beds, with asking prices ranging from €675,000 for one-beds to €2.25 million for one three-bed apartment. All have an A2 Ber and are for sale through agents Kelly Walsh.
Woodlands Grove is built by developer Turkington Rock on the 0.72-acre site of Grove Lodge, a 1940s house – now demolished – that was once the home of Ray Stafford, the man behind Irish-invented healing cream Sudocrem. Turkington Rock’s brochure describes itself as “Ireland’s first interior design-led luxury residential developer”, and all the units have interior designer Helen Turkington’s trademark simple-but-luxurious style. All the bathrooms, for example, are fully tiled with marble-effect tiles, kitchens have quartz Calacatta Gold worktops and splashbacks (marble-like, veined with grey and gold) and integrated Miele appliances, and the homes have walk-in wardrobes. All apartments open on to wide terraces floored with porcelain tiles and have frosted glass dividers from neighbouring apartments.
A 113sq m (1,216sq ft) second-floor two-bedroom show apartment gives a flavour of the style: a large open-plan oak-floored kitchen/livingroom/diningroom is decorated in neutral shades. The kitchen has sleek matt grey units and a waterfall island, where the quartz worktop covers the island’s sides. The space is bright, with a wide floor-to-ceiling glazed window/door opening on to the terrace. From the second floor, you can glimpse the Dublin mountains from the terrace – all the apartments face west. The air-to-water heat pump is in a utility room off it, with space for washer and dryer under a countertop.
The bathroom and the main bedroom’s en suite, nearly the same size, have wide backlit mirrors and brushed brass fittings; there’s a bath with shower over it in the main bathroom, and a walk-in shower in the en suite. A simple walk-in wardrobe has a mix of shelves and hanging space facing each other. Floor-to-ceiling wardrobes fill one wall of a second L-shaped double bedroom, where there’s plenty of space for a desk. The show apartment has already been reserved, for €1,100,000.
The three-bedroom 178sq m (1,916sq ft) apartment on the third floor is the highest priced in the development, at €2.25 million. The lift to this unit opens directly into a large lobby with a herringbone oak parquet floor. The apartment is fitted out in a similar style to the two-bed show unit but has a wine fridge in its island; it also has a terrace off the livingroom as well as one off the main bedroom. There’s a slightly fancier fitout in the main bedroom, with a pelmet over the bed.
A 112sq m (1,206sq ft) two-bed on the fourth floor has a wraparound terrace: the wide terrace – with good views towards the Dublin mountains – curves around to a long narrow balcony from which there are distant views of the sea.
A separate three-bed 110sq m (1,184sq ft) mews is for sale for €1.4 million: its three bedrooms are downstairs and a door at the back opens into a decent-sized L-shaped garden. Fifteen steps lead up to a large completely open-plan top floor kitchen/livingroom/diningroom, with light flooding in on a bright November morning.
Prices are: seven 59sq m/635sq ft to 63sq m/678sq ft one-bed apartments from €675,000; 17 two-bed 79sq m/850sq ft to 118sq m/1,216sq ft apartments from €895,000 to €1,475,000; one 178sq m/1,916sq ft three-bed apartment for €2,250,000, and the detached three-bed 110sq m (1,184sq ft) mews for €1.4 million. The annual average service charge is €3,000.
Kelly Walsh’s Robert Wall expects that people interested in buying will be 80 per cent downsizers; investors might be interested in the two-bed apartments, which could rent for €3,500 to €4,000 a month.
There’s a small landscaped common garden area with some seating and one surface car-park space per apartment, ducted so that owners can install an EV charging point themselves; there’s also a secure bike storage area.
Woodlands Park is a fairly quiet road just off the end of Mount Merrion Avenue near the N11, a roughly 20/30-minute walk to Blackrock village and Dart station.
Bartra Property Group paid €4 million for Grove Lodge in 2018 and sold it with planning permission for 26 apartments to Red Rock developments (of which Turkington Rock is a joint venture) in 2023 for €4.15 million, according to the Property Price Register.
