GOOD and all as the family home Ashbrooke House, near Glanmire, Co Cork, is, it is the gardens that should seal a deal.

HAVING searched the entire country for an Irish home back in the mid-1990s, Austrian playwright Felix Mitterer settled happily upon the set piece that is Castlelyons House.

PLANT early, and reap what you sow — that motto could well work for the owners of 56 Carriganarra, in Cork’s Ballincollig.

THE house Upper Deck looks like it should ring a bell — literally.

SET near the Irish Guide Dogs Association HQ on Cork’s Model Farm Road is this late 1990s family home par excellence, in a handily-reached location, from Ballincollig or Bishopstown, for buyers trading up.

AN untouched three-bed semi on the fringes of Cork city, 21 Marina Park, Victoria Road, is on offer through auctioneer Jarleth Boyd at Hamilton Osborne King, at the moment - and it’s a bit of a bargain.

A COTTAGE, at Lehenaghmore, on the fringes of Cork city on a three-quarter acre site, might have been a country home up to recent years, but its proximity to the south ring road and Pouladuff has put it in a development spotlight.

EXTEND, alter or just enjoy — all the options are there at Hollyhill, a 30-year-old bungalow on a half acre site on the edge of Douglas with Hamilton Osborne King.

YOU’D barely know it was there, but it is creating an immediate market stir.

THE auctioneering cliché goes something like this. Land is so valuable because they are not making any more of it.

MENTION Menloe, and Cork’s upwardly mobile house hunters get all misty-eyed: the address sets off alarm bells of covetousness.

A choice of two Cork city properties at around the same price: 30, the Maples, Frankfield, left, and Timariu at 27 Eagle Valley, Wilton.

SET up by the top of the Well Road in Cork city, close to Lovetts restaurant, the revamped Silver Quay bar and restaurant and Cork Constitution, slightly overlooking Mahon golf club and estuary is the three-bed semi Dooneen.

Rose Martin

BUYERS have a ready-to-go, or ready-to-gut option with two properties on the market in Bishopstown at the moment.

ALTHOUGH it’s been on the market for a couple of weeks now, there is still continuing interest in Arboretum, a detached bungalow off Cork’s Model Farm road.

FANCY a pyramid purchase?

IF it is true that the best goods come in small parcels, then contenders on the house front could be the two mews apartments and gate lodge at Floraville, on the Boreenmanna Road in Cork.

WHEN is a bathroom not a bathroom? A house up for sale for those flush with cash will have buyers puzzling over the plumbing.

HOUSE hunters won’t have any problem finding this Glasheen, Cork city house - it’s an easy one to spot with its eaves-high cordyline palm almost bang up against the front door.