Harbour-side home is for sail

CUTTING its cloth to a buying market’s measure is Golden Point, a waterside home and possible mariner’s berth in Cork harbour at the mouth of East Ferry: its asking price has been reduced from €1 million to €850,000 to expedite a sale.

The setting is one of the most picturesque inlets in Cork harbour, wooded on the sides, with a pretty stone church as sentinel and with a yacht marina sheltered behind at Marlogue.

Golden Point hit the market last July, during Ford Week, and sure enough its first flurry of viewings was from the waterborne community.

However, the changed economic circumstances and the slowdown in the upper end of the housing market in the last year meant a €1 million sale was not forthcoming from the sailing fraternity or any other quarter.

Golden Point was built four years ago on a rocky and reclaimed harbour-side site, on piled foundations with many tonnes of rocks and boulders to secure and extend its boundary, with Department of the Marine approval.

The site was originally part of the grounds of the adjoining period East Ferry Cottage, and the three-bed, three ensuite and 3,000 sq ft but easily kept home is now back up for sale with joint agents Anthony O’Regan of Keane Mahony Smith and Michael H Daniels.

It is private, except maybe for passing boats, but certainly discretely tucked away from the road behind high stone walls and electronic gates. Golden Point is finished to a very high level, with no less than 17 doors to the outside from within, counting the many PVC French doors as doubles.

It trades on its maritime setting, with a bridge-like balcony off the master bedroom, it has compass points set into the hall tiles, and design wise could as easily be in Martha’s Vineyard, the south of France or the US west coast.

Decor and furnishings are restrained, subtle, rich, elegant and international - a bit like the type of buyer the vendor hopes to attract with the reduced asking price.