Cork home Woodlawn has asking price of €3.8m

A Cork home that can justly claim to be one of the very best — if not the best — house in the southern capital, comes to market this weekend with a cool €3.8m asking price, redolent of the best of the boom-times values.

It’s going to be an absolute test of confidence in a now-recovering residential property market — and its sale will be keenly watched to see just how close to that price aspiration it gets.

Woodlawn, being sold by motor dealer, Bill Keary and his family, is up for sale as they are set to down-size, with family reared and moved on. After all, it’s big for a couple — at 5,500 sq ft of considerable and tasteful luxury (though only a four-bed) on more than an acre and a half of extraordinary grounds, running right down the River Lee at Sundays Well.

It features extensively in today’s Property and Interiors supplement, over a first-ever six pages, and could have graced the pages of any top interiors (and gardening) magazine as well.

It’s a Georgian-era home, heavily upgraded and invested in by the Kearys, as well as by its previous owner, property developer Gerry Callanan, who reportedly spent up to €500,000 extending and landscaping the terraced and tiered grounds.

Auctioneer charged with getting a buyer at this rarified level is Malcolm Tyrrell of Cohalan Downing, acting jointly with Colliers International in Dublin, and they fully expect a buyer to come out of the woodwork for this exceptionally rare, waterfrontage city home. Cork city house records set in the mid-2000s, ‘only’ stretched to €4-5m, and a few were developed at a cost of up to €6m.

The last two times Woodlawn sold, it was in off-market deals, so it’s the first time it’s been publicly available in decades.

The same Cohalan Downing agent last year sold the former home of ex-Howard Holdings boss, Greg Coughlan — Fastnet House in Kinsale, for c.€3m to a London-based businessman with Cork roots whose father is currently living there. A similar profile buyer might well emerge for this trophy buy. It could also be a corporate swoop, or even a VP/executive purchase — Apple up the road employs 2,500, while EMC out the road employs thousands more.

As it’s northside, it might appeal to Roy Keane, who has bought and sold at this sort of price level in Britain. Next up could be a Lotto winner, or reclusive millionaire, who wants a country lifestyle in the city.

Once they’re good for the money, or something close to it, it’s gone. Let the viewings commence. By appointment only.