Variety for your money

ALTHOUGH they look to be two very different house types, your €295,000 will buy you very similar specification homes in Blackrock or Boreenmanna Road in Cork city with agent Tim Sullivan.

Choices are a modern detached dormer bungalow at Melrose, just off the Boreenmanna Road, which runs from city link road towards Ballintemple, Ballinlough and Blackrock, or a modern four-bed semi in Rockfield in Blackrock village itself.

There are small enough gardens with the detached dormer at Melrose, a small cul de sac of just a handful of private homes, and it has three of its bedrooms at first floor level, with an optional fourth bedroom at ground level, which could also serve as a playroom.

Apart from this maple floored multi-use room, this home has a sitting room, lounge and kitchen/breakfast room with good oak units, a utility, guest toilet and an en suite in its main bedroom.

Out a bit further out from the city at 19, The Crescent in Blackrock, there are also two reception rooms, plus kitchen/breakfast room and a guest WC, and one bedroom is en suite.

The dormer home has slightly bigger bedrooms overhead, but marginally smaller living rooms, and the sale includes carpets and curtains and a garden shed.

Both houses have double glazing, central heating, low maintenance exteriors, off-street parking with small front gardens and larger back gardens laid to lawn.