Gatelodge House gets stamp of approval

LAST in and best dressed is a description that might fit Gatelodge House, the just-finished detached home, with an asking price of €600,000, on Cork’s Castle Road.

A couple of minutes’ walk from Blackrock Castle, the 1,800 sq ft house is a new build snuck onto a site on the otherwise completed Gate Lodge development of smaller homes by O’Brien and O’Flynn, who have done several linked residential developments in this wooded vicinity.

As this is a new build, the stamp duty on the purchase of Gatelodge House will be lower than buying a second-hand home here, notes Jeremy Murphy of ERA Downey McCarthy Murphy estate agents: the difference is as much as €30,000, but in return a new owner will have to do some final finishing and install a kitchen. The other strong selling point here is the big back garden - a full 150’ length of recently-seeded lawn with a stone wall at the end.

The floor plan is a simple four plus four, with two of the first floor bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, there’s a main bathroom with Jacuzzi bath upstairs, and underneath the house has a good 18’ by 11’ living room, there’re double doors to a narrow lounge with patio doors beyond to the garden, office/play room and a 19’ by 15’ kitchen/breakfast room with bay window looking out over the back garden. There’s also a utility and guest loo.

Maintenance is kept to a minimum with brick facade and dashed walls behind, windows are double glazed PVC and heating is gas.