Suburban cottage offers potential for its valuable site

WHAT with the appetite to build bright, shiny and efficient new homes, it looks like this Model Farm Road cottage is a goner.

Set just off one of Cork city’s most popular residential locations, the old-style cottage on a valuable eighth of an acre site is already catching the eye of would-be, one-off home builders, who are looking beyond the existing rather mundane four walls to something a bit more grand.

Estate agent Darragh Taaffe of Keane Mahony Smith is getting lots of calls for the property, set between the up-market Hayfield development and the Irish Guide Dogs HQ. He seeks €450,000 and has it under offer at about €380,000.

“The cottage is in poor condition and could make way to maximise the true value of the site, subject to planning permission,” he says.

Meanwhile, Mr Taaffe has a small house on Cork’s Glasheen Road on a half acre site, with a €395,000 pride guide. Viewing demand has been savage, bids have gone to €475,000, and the private auction planned for Tuesday will see a buyer emerge.