Under starter’s orders

AND they’re off. The first new homes launch of 2005 around Cork city is a batch of just under 100 homes at Ashmount Court, Silversprings.

The main market in housing terms in 2005 is widely expected to be first time buyers and new home builders will be competing hard with the secondhand market after the budget's removal of stamp duty on secondhand homes for fledgling buyers, on values up to €317,5000.

The first home buying market is the segment targeted here, too, where prices for new buyers and aspiring home owners start at €215,000 for a three-bed, corner town house.

The development at Silversprings is one of just a handful of house schemes under construction on Cork's northside. Because of this shortage, prices are expected to jump here by 10% on average during the coming year.

That's according to Trish Stokes, new homes director with Sherry FitzGerald, who calculates that prices at earlier phases of this advancing scheme rose on average by 14% during 2004.

Built by O'Brien and O'Flynn, this Tivoli/Mayfield/Silversprings scheme will have 500 houses in total on 55 assembled acres and is about halfway through development: other sections of the development on the hillside stretching above the Silversprings Hotel towards Mayfield include South Ridge, Ashmount and Glenmont.

"The scheme is notable for its diversity, there are 12 different house or apartment types in all being done by O'Brien and O'Flynn who, unusually for any building firm have three separate major schemes selling in Cork right now," she said.

The same developers currently doing about 300 houses a year have appealed a planning refusal for a circular 11-storey apartment tower for a site near the Moran Silversprings Hotel to An Bord Pleanala.

The overall Silversprings development is catering for the built-up starter home demand in Cork and especially the Northside: one of the few other suburban developments north of the Lee currently being marketed is Pynes Valley in Ballyvolane, where Global Properties are selling for D&J Builders and where 1,050 sq ft three bed semis are priced from €290,000, with four-bed semis from €305,000.

However, later this spring McInerney's are expected to go on site with the first phase of a major new development along the north ring road by Upper Glanmire, which will add to the limited selection and help hold prices for buyers.

Show units, meanwhile, open afternoons this weekend at O'Brien and O'Flynns Ashmont Court, Silversprings, where the offerings are primarily to first-time buyers and where elevated views over the city and harbour come with many of the units.

They're mostly a mix of three-bed townhouses in a range of sizes and styles working of a traditional house building palette.

Prices start at €215,000 for a 1,030 sq ft corner townhouse and the selection includes sizes from 920 to 1,040 sq ft and through prices of €220,000, and €225,000, while four-bed semis of 1,310 sq ft are priced at €315,000. A few detached houses will follow.