The estate agent has sold the sumptuous Ileclash three times before. It’s easy to see why, writes Tommy Barker.

The former Ballincollig DIY & Garden Centre — an offshoot of a previously relocated business which was originally the Victoria Cross Sawmills — on a good 1.8 acre site with high-quality existing buildings is up for sale, suitable for storage, trading or other new uses.

Hoping for a quick flip in the fast food sector is an investor who aims to off-load a Cork city McDonald’s restaurant that he bought last year for over €4 million.

Ballyhea on the Cork-Limerick road near Charleville is a sort of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ village, but it has risen to some stature thanks to its weekly ‘Ballyhea Says No’ public marches, rejecting the banking bailout terms.

A further €1m-plus Cork city bar and nightclub sale has just concluded, with the Bowery on Tuckey Street selling off-market: it comes just as Wetherspoons are poised to reopen a premises now standing them a total investment of as much as €3.5m, a bar investment level seemingly back to boom time values.

WEST CORK has a few iconic bars with a reputation spreading over the waves — and the Algiers Inn is definitely up there with the best of them, hosting celebs, slaking thirsts and appearing in movies, ads and TV shows.

A CORK city suburban site — with a long planning and sales history, as well as one-time high hopes of development — has come up for sale, right next door to the sprawling Cork University Hospital (CUH) campus.

TWO big Kinsale offers come to market independently this week for receivers — one being 95 acres of spectacularly-sited land at Pregane, next to where a €200m golf resort development was proposed a decade ago.

There was strong interest in this Winthrop Street property, leased by McDonald’s, which was bought by over €4 million by a private investor.

An investor has driven off with a purpose-built, garage showroom on a two-acre site in Cork’s East Gate, for less than €1.5m.

It’s got a Blue Chip tenant, it’s guiding €3.5 million — so, would you like fries with that?

Bidders for the jewel in Cork’s €20m tourism crown came from India, Taiwan, the US, Europe, China, and Cork — with a Chinese family, the Kangs, yesterday coming up trumps.

A 12,000 sq ft Cork City centre bar and nightclub complex has come to market as part of a liquidator/bank sale, guiding €875,000.

TWO Cork bars sales, one in the city, the other in Monkstown, have just been confirmed as the licensed market finally shows some signs of movement, albeit at a very low price level.

Foreign investors aretaking advantage of sharply reduced prices, with the sale of the Burlington, Fota Island Hotel and others attracting American and Chinese investors. Realistic prices are helping to attract these overseas buyers and breathing some life into a moribund market. Tommy Barker says major property sales were also a good sign and it’s likely that receivership sales will feature more strongly in 2013.

The Thai-Chinese billionaire who is buying the 500-acre Fota Resort for more than €20m is likely to make further Irish investments — and spend heavily on Fota, guaranteeing its future and jobs.

This renovated 12,000 sq ft two-storey property has a guide price of €600,000.

A wealthy Thai businessman with an impressive portfolio of Asian golf properties is one of the favourites to become the new owner of the prestigious Fota Island Resort in Cork, with a sale expected to go through this month.

With the date for auction put back until August 2, buyers interested in either of two properties on offer near Bantry, Co Cork have a little more time on their hands to sort out affairs beforehand.

AFTER a number of low-key and low-profile but significant viewings, the 500-acre Fota Island Resort finally gets its formal market launch this week.

THE 500-acre Fota Island Resort in Cork harbour, which is expected to make between €20 million and €25m, is to get an international sales campaign in January.

THE three pillars of any Irish village have always been the church, the creamery and the GAA pitch — and the triumvirate is still relevant today, even in a digital age.

LEDBURY is a property that fits a number of buying criteria — not least, hobby farm.

THERE are contradictory, pre- and end-of Celtic era touches to Kilkenny’s Coolmore estate, on 242 acres.

THERE’S something about Kinsale — is it the sea air, the architecture, or perhaps the food, shopping, and atmosphere?

YOU love maps, so why not call your latest acquisition in seafaring Kinsale the Chart House?

CHOCOLATE Box and oh so Surrey Downs, Endsleigh is a film-set example of the arts and crafts style and was built between the wars by the Coveney family, builders and surveyors.

FARM land prices have hit bottom and are on the way up, says auctioneer, Maurice Cohalan of Cohalan Downing and Associates, following the successful sale of 24 acres at Garranes, Carrigtwohill last week.

THIS Victorian townhouse sold in the height of the boom for a sum in the mid-70s, but it took over a year to bring to contract and then the buyer backed out.

THERE’S an old feminist saying — ‘we are the men we wanted to marry’ — and running with that analogy there were plenty of women with chequebooks at last Tuesday’s auction for 20 Connaught Place, Wellington Road.

A FAIRLY good turnout was recorded for the auction of a 40-acre farm at Ballybeg, New Two Pot House, near Mallow in Co Cork, last week. But the crowd didn’t matter when it came to the quality of bidders, of which there were three, according to Maurice Cohalan of Cohalan Downing and Associates.

TWO large fields are on offer close to New Two Pot House, Mallow in Co Cork.

A COUNTY Armagh equestrian buyer has made his second purchase of land in the south with this month’s acquisition of 80 acres at Cloneen, Dromcollogher, near the Cork-Limerick border.

WELL, the first Cork house auction is out of the way, and it was a sure-fired seller.

THERE has been a flurry of land sales in North Cork recently, much of it associated with the bloodstock industry.

THE rarity value of this farm in Ballyspillane, Midleton means it will attract a lot of attention, and not just for its 185 acres.

THERE are imposing piles and sweet cottages — and then there is the odd property that falls between the two. Such as this sweet little house at Gortnaglanna, close to Kilbrittain in Co Cork.

PATRICK’S HILL in Cork must be a great place to live, being so close to the city centre.

TERRY Jennings, the Liscarroll, Co Cork-based trainer, has put his stud farm up for sale with John Hodnett of SWS Property Services and Maurice Cohalan of Cohalan Downing and Associates.

A BACHELOR farmer’s bequest has netted a whopping €27.5 million for a nursing home.