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Tasteful friends: 18thC Prehen Park, Derry, No. Ireland £350,000

As fine a mid-Georgian, mid-sized country house as you will find for the price. The main house, considered one of the finest historic houses in Northern Ireland, has 675m² (7265 square feet) has eight large rooms on each of the ground and upper floors, with a basement under the whole of the house.

There are 7+ bedrooms and an 6 reception rooms plus a kitchen and extensive store rooms. There are 3 bathrooms stated, though there are obvious places to add at least a couple additional drawing from the same plumbing stacks.

For me, the proportions and mid-Georgian detailing ate great. The library, stone-floored entry hall, the crazy dining room with it's early 20thC Modern Pompeian murals, the main stair, the fireplaces, the bedroom with the scenic murals/paper, the cottage, all of it.

I would add a bathroom or two at convenient places adjacent existing ones, make some very minor changes and leave the kitchen as is (painting and repairing the ceiling), and likely it could do with a lot of electrical updating and some roof work. But I love the house as it is, showing its age and wear.

Obviously it was once a much larger property and it's by far "the best house on the block", but private enough with 9 acres. And it's just across the river from Derry/Londonderry, which has a population of 85,000 or more and and airport. It's a house good enough --and cheap enough-- for me to enjoy the house and not fuss about how Derry isn't exactly the center of the universe.

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by Anonymousreply 17June 9, 2025 12:20 AM

In the middle of nowhere.

by Anonymousreply 1June 8, 2025 6:15 PM

Yeah, what r1 said. It's beautiful, but what am I supposed to do in fucking Derry? I wouldn't even retire there.

by Anonymousreply 2June 8, 2025 6:23 PM

Needs lots of emulsion.

by Anonymousreply 3June 8, 2025 6:24 PM

"This sale offers an extremely unique opportunity to purchase and refurbish one of the most historic homes in Northern Ireland to its former glory."

Sounds like there's a lot of unseen issues to deal with - they're telling you it needs refurbishment.

HOWEVER - if you watch the video - it looks like the place has already been redone - all the bathrooms, a modern kitchen. It actually looks nice - a LOT better than the photos.

I just don't know what I would do living up there. 85,000 people? Bad weather. Nah.

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by Anonymousreply 4June 8, 2025 6:31 PM

[quote]As fine a mid-Georgian, mid-sized country house as you will find for the price.

A Grade A-listed Victorian on 10 acres for only £350,000? Considering that this amount would afford you perhaps a 180 sq ft studio in Central London, I must ask what the ACTUAL FUCK is wrong with this place for it to be THAT cheap. (Yes, I realise one likely reason is its Bumfuckian location.)

Yes, it's clearly in need of a massive overhaul – and those utterly hideous wall murals need to die in a grease fire – but its pricier elements, e.g. the crown mouldings, are still in very good shape.

by Anonymousreply 5June 8, 2025 6:37 PM

Some of those furniture pieces are stunning.

But it would take a lot of work and money to make it truly livable.

Plus, it feels like it’s damp and chilly all the damn time.

by Anonymousreply 6June 8, 2025 6:39 PM

I like it, my mom's family is from Northern Ireland, finally got thrown out around 1895.

Half of them are from the Londonderry area, I would like more land but almost 10 acres is a good start.

I would need a title. a good British one. A Marquise title would be great.

by Anonymousreply 7June 8, 2025 6:42 PM

It's a veritable money pit in a bad location with shite weather. Good luck to the new owner!

by Anonymousreply 8June 8, 2025 6:42 PM

[bold]The video at the Savills listing is of another house altogether. Sorry, I didn't realize when I posted.[/bold]

I would barely change a thing, but then I'm old and don't feel the need to make my imprint on something that's close enough to perfect as is. To me, it doesn't need an overhaul at all, and I've lived in old houses and worked with restoration projects all my life. The entry hall with the stone floor and the old paint decorated walls... wouldn't touch a damn thing. It's perfect as it is, I wouldn't want it to look new and "perfect." The library likewise, and a good number of major rooms. The house was restored in the 1970s, long enough ago that some alterations from that period may need redoing, but it's not as though the electrical and plumbing date to 1905.

The two questions that I would have at the outset about condition are that of the roof (with its complex scheme of one roof slope pitching into another is a perennial worry), and the second would be electrical costs. But I wouldn't add any major electrical systems, just be sure that the wiring was safe and had a decent number of outlets. There's no end of money you could spend: cleaning up and restoring the grounds, erecting high hedges at the perimeter, restoring the cottages for a caretaker or guest cottage... but I wouldn't kill myself investing another £750,000 on a house that's for sale for £350,000 thinking I was somehow going to make that money back.

by Anonymousreply 9June 8, 2025 7:03 PM

R9 - the video is of another house??? Ok, well that makes more sense then. I was wondering why it looked so different.

The video on the listing is actually really nice and looks finished. Is it so people could imagine what a refurbishment would bring? Seems dishonest to do that.

by Anonymousreply 10June 8, 2025 7:24 PM

R10: No, just a different house altogether. Not deception as such, just a fuck-up - one unexpected for a bit, expensive firm like Savills.

I didn't find a video in any of the alternate listings with different agencies - more credibility to it being a Savills mistake.

by Anonymousreply 11June 8, 2025 9:23 PM

*for a big, expensive form like Savills

by Anonymousreply 12June 8, 2025 9:24 PM

Handyman Special

by Anonymousreply 13June 8, 2025 9:31 PM

I love it. I could get over the condition (and would refurbish very gently) and the location if it wasn’t for the size. I realize the size contributes to the overall grandeur and that’s part of the appeal, but it’s just too big to ever be a bargain for a regular Joe. Upkeep and utilities would be pricey and you would never be confident you could selling it within a reasonable window of time, even at a very competitive price.

It’s a white elephant.

How come the Derry Girls never visited this the pile?

by Anonymousreply 14June 8, 2025 9:37 PM

It looks like it's full of damp. The plaster in entrance hall/living room in particular looks horrible. Plus, It's Grade A listed so you'll have to go through listed building approval for almost any changes you want to do, and I'm sure they will be very restrictive in what changes they allow.

In the end it probably needs at least a million pounds thrown at it to get it livable.

by Anonymousreply 15June 8, 2025 10:02 PM

The bathroom situation is not good and it doesn’t look like there are closets. The master has an attached bath and an adjacent room that could be made into a walk in closet but you’d have to create an opening in the wall. But you gotta love a place that is so large that they run out of names for the rooms in the floor plan so they just say “room”.

by Anonymousreply 16June 9, 2025 12:07 AM

It looks like a lovely place to keep pasty young naked monks!

by Anonymousreply 17June 9, 2025 12:20 AM
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