Open the gate to a great location

IT’S the Killiney of Cork, says Peter Skuse of Cork’s Blackrock suburb, and its Castle Road water-view houses.

The venerable suburb has some of the southern capital’s finest houses, and now with a trendy cafe/bakery on the pier, the foodie/yuppie element is well catered for, too.

No 8 Gatelodge doesn’t immediately jump into that rarified Killiney or even period Castle Road price stratosphere, but “there’s just something very decent and attractive about it, and it might even buck the trend and sell for over its asking price,” says Mr Skuse of the €450,000 property.

The Cahalane Skuse agent says the 1,290 sq ft four-bed semi detached home, although emptied of furniture, still has “an almost showhouse feel to it”. Built in the late 1990s, Gatelodge has a mix of semis and terraced homes but only a handful are four-bed semis.

This one has a 16’ by 12’ living room, a separate dining room with patio access, and an 18’ by 9’ kitchen with integrated appliances. Overhead, the main bedroom has a bay window and en suite shower and three of the bedrooms have built-ins. There is plenty of space within the large garden to the side and rear for further extension.

The setting is spot on, with walks towards Cork city via the marina and a shoreline walk around Blackrock and Mahon, towards Passage West.