The owners of a family business once rooted in Cork’s historic financial heart — until the property and housing boom pushed them to the suburbs — have all but returned to their spiritual home, opening the way for a tenant to take over their lease in Bessboro.

APPROPRIATELY, there’s a view still to be had down from the wooded grounds of 2, Carrs Hill, to the exquisite spire and grounds of St Luke’s Church in Cork’s Douglas — the in-spired view is relevant, because this house was for most of its life the rectory that housed the various clergy and their families.

The founding premises of homewares specialist store, Meadows & Byrne, in Cork City’s Academy Street will only be vacated and leased to restaurant chain, Nando’s, if planning is secured for change-of-use.

Inside and out, the Paddocks is a winning family home, says Tommy Barker.

THE challenging market conditions currently evident in all aspects of the property market here are likely to continue for sometime, unless “something dramatic happens with the banks to improve liquidity,” according to the head of the property company, Savills Hamilton Osborne King.

UP TO 80% of graduates with a disability conceal it when applying for a job and only 60% of graduates with a disability actually get positions, research has shown.

Tommy Barker is impressed by Cork’s largest ever apartment scheme.

You wouldn’t need to win Lotto to take over from Otto says Tommy Barker.

ROCHES Stores has contacted some of the 172 staff it is making redundant in Cork to tell them their entitlements have been processed.

THE owners of a Cork shopping centre asked Marks and Spencer to pay more than double the fixed lease rate for the centre’s anchor site just days before M&S was due to take over the plot from Roches Stores, according to M&S.

FOR PEOPLE wishing to live in a studious environment, an opportunity has arisen to purchase a property within a stone’s throw of UCC.

THINK the convenience of a country setting close to Cork city and its bright new airport and business park, think detached status, think a bit of garden space, and think in the region of €500/550,000 plus for a couple of summer 2006 options, each on a half acre plot.

DESPITE the €1.2 million price tag, there’ll be a queue to the door of no 4, and the price guide is likely to go out the window in just as quick a fashion.

House prices in Ireland have risen by an average of 15% every year for the last decade, according to figures published today by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and Permanent TSB.

Property advisor Hamilton Osborne King has been acquired by international property consultancy Savills for €50m.

SIX years old, and the first to be offered for sale, no 7 Berkeley is a stand-alone, detached house of 2,500 sq ft within a short walk of Douglas village in Cork.

SIX years old, and the first to be offered for sale, no 7 Berkeley is a stand-alone, detached house of 2,500 sq ft within a short walk of Douglas village in Cork.

THERE’S only one folly in the purchase of no 17 Lisnalee, and that’s the old castle folly seen just beyond the back garden wall of this Blackrock, Cork home.

FRESH new house designs, but a return to an architectural feature from the past, the stair return, distinguish the new homes launched this weekend in The Beeches, Woodville, a mile from the Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork.

THERE’S a lot on offer at Grove House — especially if you compare this Kanturk, Co Cork, offering with anything else available near a major Irish city in the same sort of bracket.

THERE’S a touch of “here’s one we prepared earlier” about Athlo, a Rochestown home built 30 years ago on a site that is now more valuable than the house itself as ‘deja viewings’ commence in earnest.

A NEW showhouse opened at the Dunmanway, West Cork development Dún Órga over Easter weekend, with sales now expected to increase even more.

THE owner of a Cork shopping centre has given Marks & Spencer until Friday to sign a new lease to take over a former Roches Stores plot or he will withdraw from negotiations with the retailer.

Tommy Barker says Belmount House is set on a lovely two-and-half acres.

SOME €110m a day is being spent on property in Ireland, according to Hamilton Osborne King’s latest Property Outlook published yesterday.

Tommy Barker extols the virtues of a period home whose quality is way ahead of many modern houses.

Tommy Barker, Property Editor

IT’S love, but not as most of us could afford to express it.

Tommy Barker says Cork houses have broken the million mark by the dozen in 2005.

CLOSE enough to Cork’s St Fin Barre’s Cathedral to hear the choirs, the former Verger’s House is going for something a bit more than a song.

OVER 80% of respondents in a new survey still believe property is a safer investment bet than shares.

A RICH autumn harvest of homes has hit the sales market as September closes. The clutch of multi-million euro Cork houses gives diverse city, suburban and county living options.

ANOTHER chapter in Lettercollum House’s life story is up, as the large Victorian building set above the West Cork village of Timoleague comes up for re-sale.

THE letting and in some cases the possible sale of some 14 vacant Dairygold-owned properties in Cork, Limerick and Tipperary was announced yesterday.

TOWER near Blarney in Cork is set to continue to witness rafts of new development - and this puts older style dwellings into an increasingly rare availability category.

Tommy Barker says activity in country houses is low key.

Tommy Barker

Tommy Barker is impressed with this ultra-modern waterside property.

UNIQUENESS is the selling point being stressed for what is probably the dearest house ever to hit Kinsale’s property market.

THE siting was obvious - what better place to guard the access point to Great Island than at its narrowest point to mainland county Cork?

IT looks like it should have been part of the grand Fota Estate, but South Lodge is actually associated with the period Tullagreine House, say the selling agents of the winsome-looking stone cottage.

A HOLIDAY home scheme in pretty Sneem will give purchasers their days in the sun — it made the ‘transitional’ deadline for valuable tax breaks before the schemes were headed off at the pass.

THE neighbourhood woodland squirrel was one of the impromptu attractions when a house at Kilcoolishal, Glanmire, almost doubled its guide price last year.

Tommy Barker

ELECTRIC entrance gates are designed to keep the unwanted out — but they can also lock you in.

TOP Irish hoteliers Joe and Margaret Scally have added a golf course, Harbour Point in Cork, to their tourism investments.

DEVOTEES of contemporary house design usually have to build their own one-off homes. Now, though, a niche woodland scheme near Cork city offers modern ready-mades.

WHILE Limerick has a huge amount of new shopping space to offer retail newcomers such as Marks & Spencer, the city is short of large factory units for multi-national industries, a breakfast briefing heard yesterday.