Decide for yourself how to finish off these large Woodville residences

ON the basis that if you are paying over €1.25 million for a new house you might be a bit picky, fussy or just know what finishes you do and don’t want, the two whoppers at Cork’s Woodville deliberately are being left unfinished.

You decide the final details, and the developers will put them into place, with a PC (provisional costing) allowance of about €60,000 included in the purchase prices. You want something even more elaborate, you pay the extra.

The contemporary-styled (cedar cladding, grey aluminium powder coated glazing, etc) big detached homes 1 and 2 Woodville, above or behind Glanmire, run to 2,800 sq ft of space, on half acre sites, already landscaped, and part of a former demesne with very mature and retained hardwoods a particular feature of the scheme on 22 acres.

Building at Woodville is finishing up with developers Rossdale now also active in Waterford city, as well as their Cork base. This time last year 2,700 sq ft houses at the back of the Woodville site were selling for €1.1 million with Savills Hamilton Osborne King.

Catherine McAuliffe of SHOK is now offering the slightly larger nos 1 and 2, with an extra 100 sq ft of space, four of the five bedrooms are en suite, and the site sizes right by the entrance to Woodville are the largest of all.

Being released this week, at €1.25 and €1.3 million, she bills them as Rossdale’s ‘pieces de résistance’. “Homes of this magnitude and design rarely become available on the Cork market,” she says.

Final finish and flourishes will be down to the buyers, as they are complete to ‘second fix’ level and now need things like kitchens, tiling, built-in wardrobes, internal doors and joinery, fireplaces, sanitary ware, floor finishes, decorating and more.

Some prospective buyers might be put off by this, as many want a smooth move and purchase, looking for that showhouse look: others’ though, want to stamp a bit more individuality — nos 1 and 2 are for them.

Architects at Woodville are Roderick Hogan and Associates and Wilson Architecture, and Wilson designed these two homes-in-waiting, with their two distinct sections linked or divided by a large central hallway.

The single storey sections houses the run-through living/eating/cooking and separate sitting room uses, and the two store parts hold the five bedrooms, play room and study. There’s a guest loo off the hall.

Other sections of the overall Woodville project include townhouses at the Orchard, 13 detached homes, and the Courtyard, a mix of townhouses and apartments, as well as The Beeches, large contemporary detached, semi-detached and townhouses.

“Individual 0.25 acre sites are difficult to come by in the area and are selling at prices in the region of €500,000. Others might choose a more suburban-type development where homes stand on sites a quarter of this size and can cost in the region of €1.3 million in comparable locations. Nos 1 and 2 The Avenue, on half-acre landscaped sites, come fully completed with price tags of €1.25 million for No. 1 and €1.3 million for No. 2.