This could be a very smart move

IT is big and although it is a bit short of beautiful on the outside at present, the location, size and price guide could make Maryland one of Cork city’s smartest property buys right now.

The 3,500 sq ft house, vaguely Victorian in its provenance, is off the Old Blackrock Road in Cork, off an old laneway opposite the South Infirmary hospital which puts the city centre within a half-mile reach.

The sheer proximity to the city is underlined by Maryland’s boundary: it is alongside and elevated above the traffic artery link road’s last few hundred yards run up to City Hall (watch out for a statue of the Virgin Mary in the bushes by the traffic lights opposite Boreenmanna Road for a precise location of Maryland’s big gardens). Those gardens extend to between one quarter and one third of an acre, an absolute rarity so close to town, and as the property is semi-detached it is set on one end of this site - and many will see the ‘excess’ ground as having possibility for a couple of townhouse sites.