Price rises for fine family home

Tommy Barker reports on the overwhelming interest shown in one house.

A WEEK of solid bookings for viewings flowed as soon as 10 Reeveswood hit the market. July and August are traditionally when the property market quietens, but there's been hot interest in this large 2,800 sq ft Douglas, Cork, detached family home.

And the caveat our last report that the €750,000-plus price guide would be proven light looks certain to be the case think late €800,000s and possibly beyond for the central suburban home.

"The reaction has been phenomenal. I've practically camped out there for the week, and we have had calls from all over Cork and as far away as Dublin," said Ann O'Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald.

The Dublin calls could prove apocryphal, given that the vendors are Dublin-bound for work reasons: both parties would see at first hand how far, or little, the sums involved stretch in the two main Irish cities.

As the photographs show (for those of you who haven't yet made an appointment to view), there's quite a bit of house here behind the mellow brick, and the location is simply gilded in the convenience stakes.

Directly behind the mature landscaped back garden is an all-weather playing pitch and tennis court, used by Douglas Community School, and there are two significant shopping centres close enough to carry shopping bags back from. There are ambitious redevelopment plans in hand for the older, Douglas Shopping Centre, the country's second ever such shopping centre when built in the 1970s (Stillorgan in Dublin was the first).

Throw in cinemas, national award-winning bars, more shops than you could swipe a Laser or credit card at, sports grounds, library and a host of other services and amenities, and you can see just how self-contained this whole location is.

Then, add in the city's vital traffic artery, the ring road, running within 100 yards of Reeveswood which makes it highly accessible, and you can sense the reason for the deluge of 'wanna-buy' calls since this place hit the paper.

Reeveswood houses aren't yet 10 years old, and the tile, rendered bay windows and brick design outside is safely retro and vaguely American.

Internally, this place is in fine decorative fettle; new owners might lighten some of the paint shades, given the current creamy-colour fetish holding sway in the design world, but the essential bones such as painted kitchen with Chinese slate floor and wood floors downstairs are all ready to adapt to new family use.

The accommodation lends itself readily to occupation by a good-sized family, with scope for two "removed" bedrooms at the spacious attic level, although at present the main more open space up here under the roof is used as a games room.

There are five/six bedrooms in all, though five seems to be plenty for most families, and at ground level the fact the house is so deep makes for plenty of reception space.

There are interconnecting living and dining areas, stretching 30' from the front bay window to the patio.

Throw in a family room across the hall, and a big kitchen/dining room, graft on a tiled-roof sunroom behind this again, and you see how much space you get but for how many bucks?

Answers on the back of a blank cheque to the agents, please.