Low-density luxury five minutes from the centre of the city

FINDING a four-and-a-half thousand square-foot house within five minutes of the city sounds an unenviable task, but it’s not.

There are 10 such properties at Dublin Pike, on the north-west of Cork city, framing a hill-top site with bracing countrywide views.

Carrig Glen is low-density, each house is big, and the most of the sites are up to an acre.

There’s a central green area, giving wide space between neighbours.

At the back, a ‘baby’ forest has been planted.

This adjoins number 5, Carrig Glen, a newly-built, superbly finished house that’s just hit the market this week with Malcolm Tyrrell, of Cohalan Downing.

Over three floors and on a large corner site, with a double garage that has parking for a ‘small hotel’, this house has covered all the bases. Inside, it’s bright, airy and roomy.

In MBA-speak, it has a tick-box finish: huge living space (tick); big kitchen (tick); sunroom (tick); family room (tick). Put them all together and you have the ultimate family home package, which only requires that you move in.

This house has glossy wide-plank oak floors on the ground floor and there are double-doors to the facing living rooms, which, according to the vendors, makes it a perfect party space.

Then there’s the kitchen, which is equivalent to the ground-floor space of a semi-detached house and comes with the mandatory ‘American’ fridge.

It also has a great island/breakfast unit, walls of built-ins and a decent utility.

Then, there’s the sunroom projection, into the garden and patio and a TV room or den, which is also off the kitchen.

Upstairs are five huge bedrooms, two of which are en-suite and two more that share a bathroom.

This house is neat and fresh, with wide-plank pine flooring and views from every window.

Another stairs leads to the attic area, which is finished, carpeted and ready to go as a den, snooker room, disco - for whatever function, it’s a great space.

Storage is available in the eaves and this is just walk-in, no attic stairs here, which means no waiting for him-indoors to take up the Christmas decorations.

And you’re still not finished: there’s the double garage, the full block boundary wall and the hard landscaping which has tarmac done to industrial levels.

Plumbing is also top-of-the-range, zoned and pressurised.

And the asking price for all of this - a mere €975,000.