Size: 184 sq m (2,000 sq ft)

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

SKEHARD ROAD, CORK €215,000

Split-level home with hidden lower half is exciting interest after its price reduction, discovers Tommy Barker

THERE’S a lot of homogeneity about Irish house design, with very little variation from the standard — and that’s why something as mildly tweaked as the house designs at Charlemont Heights stand out.

WITH a mid-€500,000s semi-d house sale just gone though in Cork’s Douglas, estate agents Frank V Murphy & Co have another, similarly-priced detached in the greater suburban area.

HERE’S one we prepared earlier? Except for a few minor changes, and a facade variation of brick and dash, there’s not much to separate Broadale and Thornbury, houses in Cork city.

THERE has been continuous occupation of this site at Upper Rochestown since the 1600s, and Belmont House is the most recent occupier. It’s not new, though it looks like it was built in the last 20 years.

THE housing market might be moving at a snail’s pace, and having a house named after a tortoise mightn’t inspire confidence of a fast sale – but Tortuga could prove to be a surprisingly quick mover.

DEVELOPER Sean Dunne might have boasted (in vain, so far) about bringing a Knightsbridge vibe to his Ballsbridge hotel sites in Dublin, but a 1970s Cork scheme has at least claimed a touch of London’s Kensington for Rochestown.

NOT only did new estate agency Redfords open big now offices last week, they did so with champagne.

A HORSESHOE of houses off Coach Hill has the official townland designation of Monsfieldstown, but is better known by its Rochestown address.

JUST in on the left in Rochetown’s Willowmere is No 2, a 2,100 sq ft family home par excellence, with a price tag of €900,000 to match.

TUCKED away at the end of a wooded cul de sac, number 11, Manor Lawn, in Cork’s Thornbury estate on the Rochestown Road, offers country living in the city.

COACH HILL, that meandering descent from the heights of upper Rochestown, is a settled, suburban location which is much sought after.

TYPICAL. You wait for ages for a bus, then two come at the same time.

CHARLEMONT HEIGHTS is well-named, as the hillside houses have a lofty demeanour and a view over the Douglas estuary and the lights of Mahon Point.

WITH literally thousands of smaller houses on its doorstep and their owners in the possible trading-up market locally, there’ll be active interest in Carrlawn.

AFTER the summer property slowdown, frustrated house-hunters and estate agents with an eye on their fees are hoping for a surge of newly listed properties for sale.