Having worked as an estate agent in the vast expanse of Texas, there was no way the woman of this house was ever going to build small, or put up with pokey rooms, when she returned to her native Cork, writes Tommy Barker. 

After 30 years in residence, since they got married and with a family reared, the owners of this dormer are selling up to move closer to adult offspring.

There’s always been an arty, academic, and literary vibe to the St Luke’s Cross hillside, within a steep uphill stride of Cork city centre. Auburn Villas atop of Gardiner’s Hill personifies that mix.

A new listing with Paul O’Shea and Ann O’Mahony of Sherry Fitz, No 13’s guided at €360,000.

This home ceded some space but still has a lot to offer in suburban Bishopstown, says Tommy Barker.

Tommy Barker says this well-placed elevated oasis is in need of an architect’s eye to bring it back to life.

Tommy Barker finds a Monkstown home with gardens every bit as good as the interiors.

IN PROPERTY sales, quick results most readily come from a top location, a top address or simply a covetable home, in tip-top order. 

Tommy Barker looks at a large, detached home in Mallow with five-bedrooms and plenty of space.

Tommy Barker suggests you might enjoy a look the around (and from) this upgraded bungalow above Kinsale.

Tommy Barker on a home that has undergone a dramatic transformation in a few short months.

Sales at the Elden development in Cork’s Maryborough Hill have been chugging along nicely for developers O’Flynn Construction in the past year or two, across the board, from houses to apartments, with one of the latter, a penthouse, making €630,000 in 2014.

Tommy Barker visits an Ardbrack home with all-season, Kinsale town, harbour and Bandon River views.

ALL tucked away in a cul-de-sac corner of The Orchards, off Cork city’s Glasheen Road is this large-ish family home, called Tuirín.

PRICES are back on the march in Cork’s suburban and high-end Hettyfield: but, they are still are a long way short of boom-time levels of €1m and even €2m asking prices and sales.

EVERY spring when the daffodils come up, half the country must regret not planting more of these cheering bulbs the preceding autumn. 

With 3,000 sq ft on offer, there’s more than enough house in Béal na Laoi for almost any family — but, there’s more to it than that. 

Size: 450 (4,850 sq ft)

IT’S been just one year since we launched our new-look Irish Examiner Property and Interiors supplement. Since that April, we’ve brought news and shown you some of the very best houses to come to the Munster market.

A SUB €400,000 asking price should stir the interest levels in the sale of the four-bed Bishopstown semi-d at 12 Beverley Drive.

AN original of the species, and the original of its setting, is Richmond House, a Georgian villa near Glanmire, Co Cork whose original wooded grounds have been swallowed up by one-off housing in the past number of decades.

IS No 25 Hayfield the pick of the crop? There probably isn’t a bad house in this 2004 up-market Cork suburban development, but in the sliding scale of best sites and sizes, it certainly comes out near the top.

TASTEFUL beiges, creams and taupes never got a decorative look in at number 26, Foxwood Drive — this is a bungalow with a bit of rebel attitude... albeit skin deep.

MARKET wisdom, and the recent clear evidence, is that the few house sales that are trundling on are dominated by the lower end price-wise and driven in the main by first time buyers. A few cannier investors looking to add value to cheaper properties are also in the mix.

A SHINY new face has been put on Cork’s estate agency offices, with a high-profile auctioneering office relocation setting a quality marker for other firms to follow.

PEOPLE who cannot afford to buy a new house still have an opportunity to gamble on the current house price boom.