Its usage as a benchmark for other places longing for that sort of cachet is somewhat at odds with the actual size of this patch of coast south of County Dublin.

Dalkey wields a power way beyond its village scale, partly due to the way it is talked up, but undoubtedly because of its genuinely quaint charm too.

Which is why people are sure to sit up and take notice when told of a brand new house under construction on what is surely among the most costly development land in the country.

The building activity is down Saval Park Road, a stretch of Dalkey with a comprehensive range of differing architectural styles in detached homes. Nearing completion is an impressive, detached house, designed by Relicpride Homes, and unique for a number of reasons.

Images shown here are by way of illustration, and of a similar, but smaller project by the same company. Brand new Charmwood is a threestorey, six-bed house with strong echoes of Tudor style in the use of the timberbeamed facade and multipaned, black-framed windows.

Inside, it's all natural light and generously- proportioned rooms with the staircase ascending up through the centre of the house. There are three large reception rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows at entrance level.

The big kitchen/breakfast room is to the front. To the rear is a delightful garden room which looks out on to the patio and is a mirror of the main house in miniature . . . a compact summer house, again in Tudor-style. A towering spruce was saved, during construction, in the back garden and its evergreen branches afford privacy as well as year-round visual delight from the windows.

Several mature oaks have been ordered to enhance the sheltered aspect . . . each one over 3,000 a go . . . but then it's that type of house. The view from the top floor is where the excess of superlatives can be fully justified. From the vast windows, which take up most of the wall space, the eye is captivated by a vista that takes in Dalkey village, the Martello tower and Howth head before sea merges with sky.

Visual clues as to who the builder is are there in the scale of the house . . . 418sq m (4,500sq ft), and also the spiralling brick chimney stacks which have become something of a design signature.

Irishman Tony Smith of Relicpride Homes made a huge name for himself in the UK during the l990s, known as the man who built the biggest new home in London . . . an 18-bed, 31,000 sq feet mansion in Bishop's Avenue.

A member of the Saudi Arabian royal family, King Fahad, bought that property and Smith then went on to construct homes for a number of household names including one Jeremy Beadle. The desire to design and build his own homes led to the decision to return to Ireland in the mid-l990s. Among those who have bought into the Smith style over here is golfer Padraig Harrington.

Apart from the scale, size and location of Charmwood, a big attraction for whoever buys is the opportunity to customise the house in terms of fixtures, fittings and internal finishes. Agents HOK Residential say this is a unique selling point, as negotiator Philomena Morrin explains.

"Selling a property as it's being constructed is quite a new thing at this end of the market, and something we will probably see a lot more of.

Charmwood is over three quarters finished and this is the stage where the buyer can really put their own mark on the property. On the topical issue of stamp duty, because this is a new build there will be a reduction in stamp duty."

There is great scope for versatility of usage on the first and second floors. Bedroom or living area? The most obvious candidate up for debate is that top-floor room, as described, which comes with a smaller ante-room and also an internal garden, open to the sky, yet totally private.

You could put anything out here, suggests Michael Smith, the younger member of this family company. "Really special container plants, or a hot tub perhaps."

Charmwood already has a lot going for it, but it is surely going to be something special on final completion when that last scatter cushion is plumped on the settee.

As Tony Smith concludes:

"We were dubbed the 'Rolls Royce' of building firms in London, but it got to the stage where we wanted to work to our own designs, rather than build for others. That was back in l996, but we didn't realise on coming to Dublin that it was the beginning of the property boom.

"Who knows? Maybe we started it!"

Price: 4.75m Agent: HOK Residential 01-288 5011