Variety the spice of life

LITTLE and large home options are on the go on Cork’s Rochestown Road, aimed at two diverse ends of the upwardly mobile buying market.

“Little” (and that word is relative) will cost you from €330,000, while the larger of the two and trailing a €725,000 price guide with Hamilton Osborne King is Hunters Moon.

This late 1970s detached architect-designed house is on a quarter of an acre site within walking distance of Douglas.

With its unusual split pitched roof sections, it is visibly a large property that packs quite a deal of space inside: it has about 3,000 sq ft, which takes in four reception rooms, a large kitchen/dining space, and five bedrooms, two of which are en suite.

When it last sold, Hunters Moon made the equivalent of about €350,000: its more than doubling in value in four or five years isn’t just down to how far the market has moved, it also reflects to an extent the fact it has been upgraded in the interim as well.

It has new PVC double glazed windows in place of the old single glazed aluminium ones (though as was suggested here the last time it went up for sale, cedar might have been in keeping with its architectural edge), a new kitchen fitted, new bathrooms, an altered very large internal hallway, and has been redecorated inside and painted externally as well.

A new detached garage has also been built, while the drive has been laid out with cobble-lock paving.

Likely buyers will be families trading up in the Douglas/Rochestown area, many with up to 1 million to spend: up in the large Mount Oval development off Clarke’s Hill in Rochestown, the 3,200 sq ft five bed home 76 Dewberry is currently under offer with Sherry Fitzgerald at over €800,000.

In yet a higher market echelon, a sale earlier this year saw a new record sum, 4 million, paid for a truly exceptional home, Gorthalough, on the Rochestown Road.

For those on more average incomes, meanwhile, estate agent Lucy Wolfe has an extended older style detached three/four bed right on the Rochestown Road opposite the foot of Clarke’s Hill on a quarter acre site with great gardens for €330,000.