Island reaches new heights

Tommy Barker says Jacob Island’s homes are a class apart.

WHEN the sun shines at Jacob’s Island you could almost be forgiven for thinking you are off on some seaside sunshine holiday. Once the sun comes up you definitely need your sunglasses on in the loftily glazed penthouse units: there’s a glare and a sheen from the sea and its upward reflections.

But, you’re not away, you could be at home here, at the edge of Cork harbour, across the south ring road from Mahon Point, essentially a newly-forged suburban location.

It is one of the very few new developments in the Cork region with any sort of quality views, says estate agent Paul Reid of Sherry FitzGerald, selling the last few units in the just completed further two blocks, now eight storeys high.

You don’t have to buy here to appreciate the vista, thousands of walkers already do each week as a recently-created public walk comes around this end of the city promontory, though the higher you go the better they get. The promontory walk links the outlying suburbs of Rochestown (and Passage West, Glenbrook and Monkstown beyond) back to Blackrock, along with a year-old 18 acre public park named after visionary former City Manager Joe McHugh who brought the LUTS plan, and the Lee tunnel, to life.

As a result of the far-seeing traffic relief plan, traffic goes in a barrel along the ring road nearby. However, acoustic barriers and a gurgling water feature with bronze sculpture of birds in flight bought at last year’s Chelsea Flower Show by McCarthy Developments amid the four blocks built to date do, indeed, serve to camouflage much of this sound. Double glazing helps too.

The two latest apartment buildings differ in some ways from the earlier two: first, they are two storeys taller, they have limestone instead of brick detailing, and are closer to the water. They’ve robbed some of the views from the first two blocks, and further blocks to come will be to the north, not blocking any crucial water views.

Developers McCarthys took a chance on this unproven location when they bought the land here at Ballinure for housing, while developer Owen O’Callaghan took the non-residential elements for the Mahon Point development.

An identity is being forged in this quasi-island setting (cut off by a road and water from other services,) and around 200 apartment are finished, about the half-way mark, with most houses also finished.

According to Paul Reid of Sherry FitzGerald, rents are very strong, as is demand. One-beds command €900 a month, two-beds €1,200, and the larger penthouses (also two-beds) fetch €1,500. Sales are balanced between investors and owner occupiers, and prices start at €310,000 for 564 sq ft one-beds, through 720/800 sq ft two-beds priced from €355,000 to €435,000, depending on floor height and aspect. Two-bed penthouses average 1, 250 sq ft, and prices span €575,000 to over €600,000, with double balconies. The one-beds also, surprisingly, seem to have bigger and better balconies than the two-beds.

There is underground car parking, with no charge, and landscaping levels are high (as are many of the bamboos now taking root) with a visible level of on-going maintenance. New showhouses open this Sunday, 2 to 4 pm, and standard features include tiled bathrooms and en-suites, walnut/gloss white fitted kitchens, doors are a mix of walnut and ash, there are fitted wardrobes in the bedrooms and switches/sockets are in brushed chrome.