Walford, a c,1902 house in Dublin’s most sought-after area, Ballsbridge, sold for €58m in 2005 before billionaire Dermot Desmond bought it for €14.25m in 2016, is now to be demolished and replaced by a new-build, as planners say it ‘does not have significant features which would require its retention’.
The Irish Times writes:
A trust linked to billionaire Dermot Desmond has secured planning permission to demolish a house on Dublin’s Shrewsbury Road, which remains the most expensive residence ever sold in the State at €58 million, and construct a 17,168 sq ft mansion in its place.
Three previous applications to knock down and replace Walford were rejected by planners but Mr Desmond’s Celtic Trustees Ltd has been given the green light to do so. The house, located on a on a 1.77 acre site in Ballsbridge, was built in 1902 and has fallen into disrepair in recent times.
The Desmond linked trust paid €14.25 million for Walford in December 2016 and the planning permission granted allows the development of a property almost three times larger than the existing 5,963 sq ft house…
The planning application contained a series of internal photos showing the extent to which the house has fallen into disrepair and a Dublin City Council planner who visited the site said the property ‘does not have significant features which would require its retention’…
The planner added: ‘While the scale of the new property is significantly larger, it is designed so that it is suitable to its setting. The site will be vastly improved with the proposed landscaping scheme and with the re-development of the site.’
She said that ‘given the proposal for a single property which respects the existing character of the road, the demolition of the current property in this specific instance is considered to be acceptable’.
