WHEN they were first built 15 years ago, the houses in The Paddocks on Maryborough Hill were probably the best new homes in Cork. Now, the biggest of the bunch and quite probably the best of them, is up for sale by its original owners who are trading even further up the residential ladder.

DEVELOPER Sean Dunne might have boasted (in vain, so far) about bringing a Knightsbridge vibe to his Ballsbridge hotel sites in Dublin, but a 1970s Cork scheme has at least claimed a touch of London’s Kensington for Rochestown.

THE name Douglas Wells gives an indication of this apartment scheme’s location — on the Well Road and adjacent to Douglas village in suburban south Cork.

HAVING just sold a Sunday’s Well family home for around €1.7 million, agents Savills HOK have another upper end family home as a new market offering near Cork city.

YOU won’t get too many houses right down at the waterfront in Kinsale Harbour, it is sort of the elite setting of an elite town, and that’s why this Lower Cove home is guided at €1.75 million.

Tommy Barker discovers artistic flair in the St Luke’s suburb of Cork.

ONLY the developer has gone the extra mile in the nicheOakwood Manor development — everything else is a short walk from Kenmare’s core, in a town reckoned to be one of the world’s top 10 retirement spots.

THERE are copies and there are copies, but Ballyduff House in Cloyne, Co Cork, is almost the genuine Georgian article.

RUMOURS abound that a house which cost in the region of €1.3 million in Hettyfield, Douglas this year is to be knocked and rebuilt. It had a guide price of €850,000 through Peter Cave of HOK.

FIRST bun-fight of the year for a detached home in the Douglas suburb of Cork can be expected for Ashton, a house with a lot going for it - especially a Hettyfield address.

Rose Martin visits a Victorian beauty that’s recently been renovated.

THORNHILL is probably the last Cork city centre offering of 2005 - and will probably be wrapped up for Christmas.

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.

Tommy Barker says Lislee House has a virtual private world at its doorstep.

SEVEN years ago, the ‘twin’ of this very large Georgian home set a record price for a semi-detached house in Cork. Now the other half of the equation, Eastcliffe, looks set to do the very same thing on leafy Castle Road.

IT’S hard to tell that the owners of this period house have two small children running around, it’s so perfect.

DETACHED and dating back to the post-war period, Renmore is a handsome family home in a handy location.

AUCTIONEERS don’t normally describe the property they are charged with selling as a hole - but that is exactly what Peter Cave of Hamilton Osborne King has up for sale.

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

‘CARMEL’ comes with an enviable location in Cork’s Green Belt - not to mention on the banks of the Lovely Lee.

BUILT in the 1850s, the big semi-detached home at 2 Gordon Villas is in surprisingly good health inside and out, thanks to improvements by its relocating owners.

TAKE one large, period house on an acre, in the much-sought after suburb of Blackrock, add three new, detached houses and you have Glandore Manor.

THE Highlands, a very green and pleasant estate in Passage West, Co Cork, is well named.

CARNELLY HOUSE in Co Clare has been sold this week for a price close to €3 million after less than three months on the property market.

EVEN the prices have Great Expectations — up to €750,000 for the best apartments — but Havisham House at Rochestown in Co Cork is something to write home about.

TUCKED in off Cork’s Rochestown Road and up for sale in the quiet pre-Christmas market lull is 3, Kiltegan Lawn.

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.

HOT on the heels of the sale of 40, Lindville, (agreed at around €800,000), comes 46, Lindville, its neighbour and a near-identical property on Cork’s Blackrock road.

WHOEVER gets their hands on 13, Monkstown Castle Demesne in Cork will be in luck - the wood-clad home in a mature woodland setting is a design statement.

A GEORGIAN period home, dating to the mid-1700s and well-maintained down through the centuries, is for sale just outside Cork city.

IT'S hard not to fall into eulogies with a house like Knockgriffin - it's a classic example of domestic revival architecture.

NEO-Victorian, with a really high specification and a location on Blackrock Road: it all adds up to the Lindville package.

THERE’LL be a battle of the burghers and the upwardly mobile for this tasty property with water frontage, at Bayswater, in Cork.

YOU can take “trading down” as a relative term — especially when you consider that the vendors of Lissarda House in Cork traded down to this quite large Georgian house only in the mid-1990s.

THE Exchequer is set for a multi-million euro stamp duty and vat windfall as 12,000 civil servants get ready to leave Dublin.

EVEN from the outside, Gurteen House near Bandon in Co Cork looks that bit different, but the differences really stack up on closer examination — spooky eyes follow your around the outside and inside of this unusual property mix.

THERE’S plenty to potter around with at The Glebe, Kilmahon, in Shanagarry in Cork, the home of the Pearce family of craft workers and potters and set to leave family hands after half a century.

ONE of a Victorian terrace of six houses, No 2 Sydenham Terrace is done up to the nines.

GROWTH in traffic and the spread in new housing on the city’s fringes and beyond has given an added value to inner suburban city homes.

A LONG and low farmhouse, a century and more old, on a 95-acre farm with pond, level land, woodland walks and even an old lime kiln, is up for sale by public auction.

A LONG and low farmhouse, a century and more old, on a 95-acre farm with pond, level land, woodland walks and even an old lime kiln, is up for sale by public auction.

FANCY a woodland hideaway, in a dramatic site, with greenery all around, a stream at the border, and nine acres to call your own?