Turning a garden into a site

THERE’S gold in some gardens, and some grassy plots have already led to bumper harvests. Side gardens in the suburbs continue to turn to gold for some fortunate occupants, who might only have originally paid a few hundred pounds extra for the larger plots on which their homes stand.

Despite the housing slow-down, side gardens with planing for a new-build house can be worth from €100,000 to €250,000, or even more in the best locations.

A sale with options for buyers is No 47 Beechwood, a three-bed semi-d in Cork’s Ballinlough, with outline planning permission for a 1,600 sq ft detached house on its left side. Listed recently with agents ERA Downey McCarthy, it has an asking price of €525,000 for both house and side garden/site with OPP.

Those keen to see just how this might work out in practice won’t have to look too far. A neighbouring ‘mirror-image’ house at the other end of the row facing a green has already built just such an example (with attic rooms) in its garden.

In fact, Beechwood itself, with its characteristic big corner plots, already provides a good cross-section of examples of newer houses snuggling up to older ones.

Joe Gavin of James G Coughlan Associates has a site-only up for sale at the Ballinlough road end of Beechwood.

He’s looking for offers in the region of €180,000 for the site, which has planning for a 1,300 sq ft new build. The same agents are also seeking around €420,00 for no 90, Beechwood, an ‘original condition’ semi.

ERA’s €525,000 offering at 47 Beechwood gives options to a cadre of buyers, including family members looking to stay close to one another.

At present, No 47 has a quite typical layout, of two reception rooms, kitchen/breakfast room, guest loo, and three bedrooms plus recently remodelled bathroom, and the gardens are a good-enough size, even when a good chunk may be used up for building.