Address: 1 Richmond Hill, Monkstown, Co Dublin
Price: €1,750,000 AMV
Agent: Lisney Sotheby’s International
View this property on MyHome.ie
A period villa close to the heart of Monkstown, Co Dublin, is set to be sold at auction in September. Number 1 Richmond Hill is one of a growing number of houses at the top end of the market being auctioned, two decades after auction sales of high-end homes virtually collapsed following the property crash.
The return of bridging finance is one factor, says Lisney agent Ann-Marie McCoy, as well as buyers’ preference for a clear and transparent sale method. Increased “gazundering” – where a buyer goes sale-agreed in a private treaty sale, then offers a lower price before contracts are signed – may be another factor.
Number 1 Richmond Hill, a detached 220sq m (2,368sq ft) four-bed villa, has an AMV of €1.75 million prior to being auctioned by Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty on September 16th. Solicitors Smith Foy & Partners can provide a legal pack to prospective buyers.
The property was completely modernised and revamped after being bought in 2017 – for €925,000, according to the Property Price Register. It came on the market again in 2022 with a price tag of €1.85 million and went sale-agreed, but the sale fell through and the house was withdrawn.
As a protected structure, it’s Ber exempt.
Number 1 is the first house on Richmond Hill, a road first laid out around 1826, according to historian Peter Pearson in his book Between the Mountains and the Sea.
It’s a double-fronted villa, elegantly modernised from top to bottom, with period features that include original timber floors, rich plasterwork, sash windows with shutters and fanlights over the front door and the inner hall. Set out over three storeys at the back and two at the front over basement level, there’s potential for new owners to reconfigure the layout, says McCoy, as well as room to extend in the 27m-long back garden.
Refreshed for sale, the house has been painted – mostly white – and staged by Upstaged Properties, with modern furniture and fittings complementing period features.
Double doors at the top of granite steps open into a porch with stained glass windows on each side. French doors topped by a fanlight open into the entrance hall, with a drawingroom on the right and kitchen on the left. The drawingroom is dual aspect, with sash windows and working shutters, rich plasterwork, a marble fireplace and original timber floors.
Entrance 
Drawingroom 
Kitchen 
Family room 
Study
The kitchen/breakfastroom on the left of the hall also has rich plasterwork, a black marble fireplace and original timber floors – contrasting with sleek Italian kitchen units and a very long island topped with pale quartz. A few stairs at the back of the kitchen lead down to a pantry, with doors opening on to a front terrace.
It’s very much a split-level house, with four bedrooms on three different floors: stairs from the entrance hall lead up to the main bedroom with a large walk-in closet, a space that could be used as a family room, thinks McCoy. There’s a small smartly fitted guest toilet off the stairs. Stairs down from the entrance hall lead to a family room with polished timber floors, a guest toilet and smart family bathroom with free-standing oval bath, oval wash-hand basin and a step-in shower.
More stairs lead down to a lower hall with wide-plank laminate floors. There are two double bedrooms at this level with sash windows; a standout feature is the fully-tiled shower room built under the front stairs and a Philippe Starck bathroom suite. A lobby off the double bedroom at this level could, with planning permission, become an en suite or walk-in wardrobe. A long utility room at the end of the hall has built-in cupboards concealing a washer and dryer, sink and lots of shelving. A door from here opens on to the side of the house.
More steps lead to the basement, where there’s a fourth double bedroom, a study/home office and a door to the back garden. The walls here are stud partitions: new owners could reconfigure the space to become a self-contained unit, as it has outside access, suggests McCoy.
The large back garden has not been landscaped and new owners would likely build fencing to create more privacy as the garden is overlooked on one side by an apartment development next door. The house shares (and owns) a driveway with 1A Richmond Hill, a house built on the former mews of number 1. (It sold for €830,000 in 2023, according to the Property Price Register.)
In May this year, Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty sold two houses on Cross Avenue in Blackrock at auction. Dawson Lodge sold for €2.3 million, €700,000 over the €1.6 million guide price; in July, Springhill at 24 Cross Avenue sold for €2.3 million, €800,000 over the guide. In November 2025, it sold the Holy Rosary Convent at 23 Cross Avenue for €2.375 million, €125,000 below the €2.5 million guide.
Main bedroom 
Bathroom 
Back garden 
1 Richmond Hill, Monkstown, Co Dublin: aerial view