City home exceeds guide price

WELL, the first Cork house auction is out of the way, and it was a sure-fired seller.

21 Richmond, off Cork’s Blackrock Road at the city end, and also just off the equally accessible Boreenmanna Road, was chased to sell for €730,000, well above its early, pre-auction early to mid-€600,000 price guide.

A two-bed bungalow, on a pleasant site suitable for extensions or conversion to two-storey accommodation, it was bought in trust by Coughlan Griffith solicitors, and auctioneers were Cohalan Downing.

“It was built in the 1960s for £3,000, and following last week’s sale a stamp duty cheque for €65,000 will have to go off to Finance Minster Brian Cowen,” noted estate agent Maurice Cohalan of the turnaround in Irish property fortunes.

Other bungalows to sell in Richmond in the past two years have ranged from €575,000 to €730,000 for a four-bed, one bought for a refurb, the other for demolition. No 21 (and not no 18 as initially billed in the pre-auction publicity) was bought at auction last week for €730,000 as a trading-down home, it is understood, with at least five active bidders and after 40 viewings.

So, with a firm focus on so-convenient Richmond, will the biding pick up on Kylemore, a five-bed semi in the 1960s estate? It came up for sale in the latter half of 2006, but with a very high guide, now revised downwards to ‘offers in excess of €650,000,’ via Kinsale-based estate agent O’Neills.

All the bedrooms are on the upper level, so it really is quite a large family home (part is over a car port,) and other rooms include a 18’ by 13’ reception, with an arch link to the dining room, kitchen, utility plus guest loo, with a very spacious back garden.

While it needs of modernisation, the location is a banker and the grounds are nice and mature.