Shades of Greystones
Wales spotting: View from bedrooms on a clear day goes the distance in seaside location
ONE of the first of the zany marketing stunts used to promote a new development in the post-crash era was in the spring of 2016, when the selling agents for SeaGreen in the Co Wicklow coastal town of Greystones hired people dressed as sailors to direct hordes of house-hunters to the scheme.
The maritime theme was repeated in the marketing material for SeaGreen, which is located on a hill off Greystones’s Chapel Road: prospective residents could see Wales from their bedroom windows on a clear day.
Arguably clear days have been few and far between during what seemed like an eternal winter. But the same vision of Wales is promised for SeaGreen Gate, a sister development to SeaGreen located on the other side of the road from the original scheme.
SeaGreen Gate is the latest in a slew of housing schemes to spring up in Greystones over the last three years. These include Waverley, where a new phase is due to come on stream by the summer, and 358 homes at Glenveagh Marina Village.
At SeaGreen Gate, Wood Group Homes is building 44 properties, all four-beds in variety of styles named after Irish literary figures. The first phase will comprise 22 four-beds, with sizes ranging from 1,399 sq ft to 1,425 sq ft.
Prices start at €470,000 for The Wilde, a mid-terraced four-bed extending to 1,399 sq ft, at €490,000 for The Yeats, which is the same size but comes as an end-of-terrace or semi-detached style, and at €520,000 for The Beckett, which spans 1,421 sq ft and is also available as an endof-terrace or semi-detached design. Completions on the houses are expected as early as December.
The houses have a half-brick, half-nap render facade, complemented by string course detailing and granite to the sills of the Norwegian-made NorDan triple-glazed timber-framed windows.
The pathways and front driveway are laid in eco-friendly permeable cobblelock paving made from natural stone. At the semi-detached and end-of-terrace houses, side gates lead to the back garden and paved patio.
Inside, bay windows to the front of the ground and first floors allow in extra natural light. Each fitted kitchen from Nolan Kitchens is finished in a combination of white and walnut and will come with a range of AEG or Electrolux appliances.
On the first floor are two double bedrooms — one of which is ensuite — and a single bedroom. The second master ensuite on the second floor has an unusual feature for a new-build — a balcony-style Velux Cabrio roof window. Three of the four bedrooms are fitted with wardrobes from GredorWood, with PC allowances available to purchasers. There is also an allowance for tiling.
The SeaGreen Gate homes were designed to achieve an A2 BER, with the help of features such as a high-efficiency gas-fired condensing boiler for the natural gas central heating, thermostatically controlled radiators throughout, and roof-mounted solar thermal panels.
Family buyers at SeaGreen Gate won’t have too far to go for the school run — there are three schools just a short walk away: Greystones Educate Together and Gaelscoil na gCloch Liath are 400m away, and the new Temple Carrig secondary school in Blacklion is 500m.
SeaGreen Gate is about a 20-minute walk from the Greystones Dart station.
The showhouses at the development are open to the public tomorrow and Sunday, from 10.30am to 12.30pm.