You’d be hard pushed to find a quieter, off-road setting and suntrap suburban back garden than Mindzenty, named after a persecuted Hungarian Cardinal.

With five bedrooms and more than 1,300 sq ft of space, No 3 Beechwood Avenue in Cobh is quite a bit larger than the average starter home.

You might go a bit adrift, on a first trip at least, out to Ballyglass, Grenagh to this dormer home up for sale, but as any local will tell you, the roads quickly become very familiar.

There’s been a swift uptake, and an early offer too, on the arrival for sale of 16, Orchard Avenue, an end-of-the-line three-bed semi in Midleton’s popular Castleredmond development out by Ballinacurra.

Tommy Barker finds a good value home outside Douglas’ ‘halo’ effect.

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.

There are houses in practically every price category in Cork’s Montenotte, from modest homes to million-euro mansions.

You just don’t get a handle on just what sort of Hettyfield home Corrin is from the outside. 

Back when Sun View and Líos na Gréine were built, the setting off the south Douglas Road was next to Cork city’s landfill site.

A three-bedroomed semi-detached house at 67A Meadowgrove, in the Westwood development off Carrigaline’s Ballea Road, is guided at €225,000 by its selling agent Fiona Waldron of Jeremy Murphy Associates.

Just as you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, you shouldn’t really judge a house by its facade or by first impressions. 

There are two faces or facades to the quality and deceptive family home called Aisling.

Space, inside and out, comes as a given with this modern, five-bed detached home north of Youghal.

Tommy Barker finds a Seventies home in the suburbs which has been cleverly and tastefully opened up.

Three-bed in Fort View, near Garryduff, is pristine, says Tommy Barker.

Tommy Barker says imagination is the key when it comes to doing something magical with this derelict chalet/house near Crosshaven.

A modern build, and done like a small hotel, the Brogan Inn in Bandon is for sale, ready to run, and full of potential.

The site and gardens, of 1.75 acres, are the star attraction at Sundale, a large detached bungalow at Goggins Hill, Ballinhassig just west of Cork city and airport. 

Victoria Avenue, Cork Cost: €275,000

Size: 130sq m (1,400sq ft)

Sq m: 108 (1,195 sq ft)

Size: Sq m 111 (1,200 sq ft)

We view a selection of starter homes from around the country

Well-situated property impresses on many fronts, says Tommy Barker

We scan a selection of trading up homes from around the country

MODEL FARM ROAD, CORK €149,000

There’s a mix of interest, from traders-down to first time buyers. Tommy Barker reports

DOUGLAS, CORK €375,000

ROSSCARBERY, CORK €85,000

BALLYVOLANE, CORK €150,000

SKIBBEREEN, Co Cork €69,000

No 83 Wolfe Tone Street, Cork, is an easy home to keep warm, Tommy Barker reports

DOUGLAS, CORK €217,000

MONTENOTTE, CORK €235,000

27 Wheatridge in Cork’s Maryborough Ridge development.

THERE’S quite a selection of older-style three-bed semis up for sale in the enclaves and estates of houses around Ballinlough, reflecting the ageing of the population and the natural life-cycle of housing developments.

HOT on the heels of a recent successful house sale on the corner of Cork’s Blackrock Road and Crab Lane is the detached Crab Lane bungalow Glenville.

The reduced price of these homes includes furniture and appliances, Tommy Barker reports

We scan a selection of trading up homes around the country

ALL done up, and not lived in since it was made over as a cosy two-bed nest, is No 2 Glen Road, in Cork harbour’s Monkstown area.

Jeremy Murphy Associates are selling a large, detached house, also in perfect condition, at Mount Oval, Rochestown, in Cork.

AFTER a 30-year development background, developer Declan O’Mahony of Bride View Developments has seen all states of the property market (he’s even on a CIF sub-committee advising the Government on NAMA) — so it is appropriate his latest scheme is called The Seasons.