Elden apartments in different class

HOVERING above the trees on Cork’s Maryborough Hill is the just-launching apartment scheme Elden — including five upmarket penthouses looking down on centuries’ old woodland and the Lee estuary.

The development of 45 large units comes after the completion of 29 contemporary-style houses at Elden, previously the site of one dated family home on five valuable acres.

Showhouses for the two- and three-bed units (990 to 2,020 sq ft) open this afternoon 2 to 4 pm, and on Thursday night, and given the location and quality, pricing is extremely keen...from €350,000 up to €730,000, reflecting today’s struggling market.

Elden brings Ballsbridge apartment-style of living to Cork’s Douglas suburb, and it is likely some of the prospective apartment-focused buyers will be conflicted between the city centre Elysian tower (visited on Monday last by 3,000 people as part of a charity fundraising venture,) and suburban Elden.

Both were designed by Wilson Architecture, are finished to the same very high level, and developers of both are O’Flynn Construction.

And, selling agents again Sherry FitzGerald, who will find viewers balancing the pros and cons of the differing locations, city vs suburban.

Either scheme will comfortably accommodate owner-occupiers for the long-term: the days of apartments being seen as temporary places on the housing ladder is banished by a clutch of recent schemes, including O’Callaghan Properties’ Lancaster Gate and several new Frinailla offerings.

Size is one key. The smallest two-bed Elden unit is a good 990 sq ft, most are 1,152 sq ft, and all are dual aspect, with light and views to track from the various sit-out balconies or terraces.

There are four block-busting three-beds, up on the fourth floor, at 2,020 sq ft each, with Elden’s best being a knock-your-slippers off fifth floor penthouse and show unit, with parquet flooring, oval-shaped glazed seating den, private lift lobby, Poggenpohl kitchen, and with terraces front and back.

These great big apartment homes look out over the centuries’ old woodland of Maryborough House estate, now a hotel, and with the big one-off Maryborough Orchard houses (€1 million to 2-3 million in value) glimpsed beneath.

Elden is a staggered block, over basement car parking, in five sections with five lifts, a ratio which means only two units per lift on each floor, with sole access lobbies for the top five three-beds.

Selling agent is Trish Stokes of Sherry FitzGerald, who says that given the quality, location and size, these 45 apartments really are priced to sell for today’s confidence-suppressed market.

Prices rise as you go higher in the scheme, but only marginally, from €350,000 to about €370,000, for the 990/1,152 sq ft two-beds. Turn back the clock 18 months and they might have been in the €500,000s.

The 2,025 sq ft three beds are well-priced too, from €730,000. Back in the boom the market mightn’t have batted an eyelid at prices near €1 million. The spectacular, one-only floor five show unit is likely to be well into the € 900,000s.

Service charges come in at €1.75 per square foot.

Standard across all units are fully fitted gloss kitchens, with appliances, tiled bathrooms and pumped showers, broadband, multi-room audio and surround sound, video intercom and alarm, 9’ high ceilings, allocated basement car parking, and high-spec electrical and door ironmongery, in either oak or walnut.

Energy efficient units are bright thanks especially to floor-to-ceiling glazing. One to view.