With a considerable €150,000 price cut, Ballyfouloo may be right for you

A SWIFT, sudden and serious price drop will see viewers’ noses twitching around this Monkstown, Cork harbour home.

Put up for sale only last October, it has had €150,000 knocked off the asking price already, down from €675,000 to €525,000 to push through a sale. And, that’s for a c 3,700 sq ft home, with five to six bedrooms, on a harbour-view site near Monkstown Golf Club, a few miles over the hill from Rochestown Monastery.

Auctioneer Garry O’Donnell of ERA Downey McCarthy says this is a huge reduction for a quality detached house, which last changed hands in 2004. Back then, it had a €750k guide, and sold for between this and €700k to the current owners.

Despite its apparent modernity and things like a sophisticated geothermal heating system, the house’s bones are a good deal older than first impressions might convey. In fact, the core was an older cottage/bungalow, with a wraparound to the front and side, plus conservatory and other add-ons to really grow it in scale.

Location is elevated, with views towards Monkstown, Cork harbour and Raffeen Creek, and three of its five first floor bedrooms (all doubles) have en suite shower rooms.

The ground level, because of its mix of old and new, has some smaller rooms and several large, open plan spaces, with a kitchen in cherry wood. Current uses include study, family room, living room, dining room, kitchen/diner, utility, guest WC, and hall.

It’s on a site of c. one-third of an acre, geothermal pipes buried in the back garden with a (gas back-up with solar panels fitted.