It is one of the busiest weeks of the year, with auctions and fairs up and down the country.

“A grand, solid block of a house” — so says Hugh McPhillips of Marshs auctioneers, seeing straight to the good points of the suburban four-bedroomed 11 Bellair Estate. 

The last chance to hit the dance floor at a hotel that hosted top political figures in Irish history takes place this weekend, as the new owner sells off its contents.

Tommy Barker sizes up two semis of differing sizes in the same location near Douglas village.

MARSH’S VIEWING

Turners Cross, Cork €240,000

Location: Size: Sq m 185 (2,000 sq ft)

This four-bed semi in Loretto Park defies expectations, writes Tommy Barker

Oil on canvas entitled The Vegetable Seller at Cork, estimate €800 to €1200, at Hegarty’s Auction Rooms, The Bypass, Bandon, on Tuesday, Dec 11, 2012 at 7pm.

Against the Stream by Jack B. Yeats at Whytes in Dublin on November 26th. It is estimated at €50,000-€70,000.

This Regency Carlton House Desk made 85,000 at Mealy's-Christie's sale in Mount Congreve.

The tide sure has turned since Knockane last graced these pages.

THERE’S huge originality to play with at 4 Pinewood, a century-old home on Cork’s main Douglas Road — within a skip of the city centre, and with a private, long back garden.

Clondrohid, Macroom €270,000

Kitsborough was the biggest house sale in Cork this year, exceeding its €1.5m-plus guide price, writes Property Editor Tommy Barker

THE previously extended, four-bed semi-d at ‘Cherrygrove’, 6, The Rise on the edge of Cork’s Bishopstown has an asking price of €390,000.

IS it sexist now to describe Ballintubber Lodge as ‘a Gentleman’s Residence?’ Let an enterprising woman come to the fore, then, and change the auctioneer’s historically redolent description of this country home, newly up for sale.

FOR those who had prepared themselves to live in the promised brave, new shiny world of Cork’s docklands, but now find the time schedule somewhat elongated thanks to an economic, construction, and property meltdown, perhaps the best way forward to that future is via the past.

FRONT row, or back row? Two similar suburban homes, in the same well-regarded estate, hit the market in the same week with agents Marshs and Property Team O’Sullivan.

IT is one of the biggest price drops around: €5 million, down to €2.2 million.

THE railway never reached up the Glounthane hill to Kilcoolishal, or the fine family home Glean Alainn, but bits of it now grace this house and grounds.

NUMBER 2 Willow Court, Cross Douglas Road, fills a number of criteria: it’s perfect for downsizers or first-timers, it’s a walk to town and it’s in a good area.

TWO Douglas semis-ds, in strong selling locations, have added extras in their back gardens, as the autumn selling seasons slows further.

Tommy Barker visits a very modern villa in Cork’s genteel Montenotte.

YOU’LL need to put on a bit of a push to bring Hillside, on Cork’s Boreenmanna Road, fully up to speed, but it’ll be worth it.

THE city has crept in around Parkhurst, but this has been happening for a century and more, and it hasn’t bothered it yet.

HOUSES in Cork’s Marble Hall Park used to only rarely crop up for sale.

AUCTIONS were the damp squib of the Dublin property market in the latter half of 2006 as that market cooled, and outside of Dublin, sales by public auction can be hit and miss even at the best of times.

A PERIOD house in Cork city, on the edge of the emerging UCC dockland’s campus, sold yesterday for €2.7m, a full €1m over its pre-auction guide.

APPEARANCES deceive: don’t be put off by the fogged up front window (a failed double glazing pane) at 6 Pinewood: the house within is a far clearer and cleaner affair.

A €30 MILLION waterside site swoop by developers Howard Holdings is going to make Passage West in Cork harbour, prime and pretty once more.

WHERE once there was one, now there are four plus one.

Tommy Barker profiles a development of attractive new apartments.

THE only American living in Cork city's so-called 'American houses' is on the move.

LOOK past the dark, battleship grey interior colour, and past some of the odd, internal ‘improvements’, and you will see what a fine period Victorian family house that number 5, Park Villas, on Cork city’s Victoria Road, could become.

HOW high will the high house go? A slender and elegant three-storey Victorian house, Trefusis, on the Victoria Road in Cork city, has caused a flurry of viewings since the For Sale sign hit the front pillars last week — 45 viewers in an hour at open viewing on day one, and a couple of dozen more on day two.

WITH Blackrock Castle as a neighbour, and some of Cork's finer individual period homes all in a row, Castle Road in Cork is a special and covetable address.

IF ever a house was made for terrace or patio living, it’s this south-facing 70-year-old home with old-style class.