Well done to Castlehaven Finance clients Johnny O’Loughlin and Micheal Moran of Seabren Developments on the launch of these high-spec, luxury executive homes on Highfield Road in Rathgar, Dublin 6, as featured in The Irish Times below…

Going up: Rathgar super homes with lifts for €3.25m each

Two new homes on Highfield Road completed to a spec more typical of grand contemporary designs in London or New York

You can link to the full feature by Alanna Gallager in The Irish Times here: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/new-to-market/going-up-rathgar-super-homes-with-lifts-for-3-25m-each-1.4355294 

“Four years ago The Irish Times Property section covered the sale of a 1980s house, once an extension to Highfield House, which had been separated from its period parent for the purpose of the sale. Warehouse-like, the unusual brick-fronted building had blind windows to the front and featured a ballroom that in turn had floored over a swimming pool. It also had no stairs, but one lift to convey people up and down.

Set on a quarter of an acre of grounds, it caught the eye of Johnny O’Loughlin, a tiler turned property developer who partnered with Micheal Moran of the Moran Hotel Group a few years ago to form Seabren Developments.

The firm has climbed the prestige ladder with each of its infill sites, first cutting its teeth in 2018 on a pair of modernist-style houses on Ontario Court Ranelagh, located just off the canal, with each seeking €850,000. They followed that up soon after with the headline-grabbing purchase of a 0.5 hectare (1.25 acre) site for €8.7 million at Dunville Close in Ranelagh. There, the luxury Annesley Gardens scheme is about to launch with four of the 20 units already sold.

“The swimming pool saved us a few loads of rubble, but it was the lift that inspired the layout of Highfield,” says O’Loughlin of the two new buff brick and Portland stone-fronted, three-storey over basements that replaced the 1980s house.

While the properties emulate the proportions of neighbouring period homes on the road, their rooms have been set around a lift shaft core, a trend more typically seen in grander homes in London or New York but not so much here. This neatly removes the legwork from upstairs downstairs Georgian living.

The design by OC Architects is in step with the building line and has windows 2 metres tall at hall level and reduce only marginally to 1.8 metres tall at the levels above echoing the uniform shape of period six-over-six pane sashes. These soft bronze alu-clad windows, designed by Nordan, do not open: ventilation is via a mechanical system and there are side hatches in the bedrooms allowing for cooling breezes.

The usual granite steps to the front are not included in this design. Instead it’s possible to back the car under the cantilevered porch, allowing the easy access with bags and shopping in any weather…”

Read the full feature by Alanna Gallager in The Irish Times here: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/new-to-market/going-up-rathgar-super-homes-with-lifts-for-3-25m-each-1.4355294