The best kind of choice

CITY convenience or county and coastal cachet?

Two different lifestyle options for what will end up probably the same €750,000 cost have just become available on the upper end of the Cork market.

One, Moanroe Lodge, is for those into country living; down by the sea, large and newly built to a good specification, with land for horses, stables and great coastal views. It's priced at €750,000.

The other home, San Michele, is in Hettyfield in Douglas, a detached mature post-war house in a residential enclave where homes rarely change hands and a location families trading up or closer to town will queue up to get into.

It is priced at over €600,000 by Kevin Silke, who also has Moanroe Lodge newly up for sale. When modernisation/extension costs are factored in, a buyer of San Michele will end up well into the €700,000 plus bracket for this Douglas home.

For those into a country and coastal lifestyle, Mr Silke has the two-year old large home Moanroe Lodge, a 3,000 sq ft dormer home on eight acres with views stretching (and that's the operative word) to four, if not five, counties.

It comes with electronic access gates, three stables, a detached garage, padlocked land and is four miles from Carrigaline and a mile or so from Fountainstown, near Minane Bridge.

At 560' above sea level and on a ridge, the vista isn't broken: it has genuine 360 degree views, taking in the Old Head of Kinsale to the west, ocean to the south, Cork Airport to the north, and Cobh cathedral and harbour to the east, while looking further on a clear day the vendors swear you can see distant mountains in Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford.

Over 180 degrees of the view are coastal, while the setting is peaceful and rural, up narrow roads but still less than a ten-minute drive to Carrigaline and eleven miles from Cork city.

The buyer is most likely going to be interested in horses, and given the demand for houses and/or land for families keeping horses, Mr Silke will have a select band of well-shod bidders for Moanroe Lodge.

It has spacious living accommodation, including large living room with bay window, large kitchen dining area opening to a high-ceilinged sun room, a family room, study with curved glass block wall, family room/fifth bedroom, and three bathrooms, two with power showers.

Two of the first-floor bedrooms are very large, and this upper level also has a family bathroom, attic room and large hotpress.

San Michele in Hettyfield, by contrast, has a modest enough sized suburban site within a few minutes walk of Douglas village.

It is in a quiet section of Hettyfield, and its owners converted a fourth bedroom into an en suite, put in a curved wall sun room overlooking the back garden, and converted the garage into a one-bedroom flat with bathroom.

The house has a double-sized reception room, guest loo, compact kitchen and three bedrooms. One of the latter is en suite; sound, but dated.

New owners at this price level are going to be looking at further extensions, upgrading, new bathrooms, kitchen and other improvements, with the investment justified by the convenience of location.