Trading Up

OVENS, CORK €295,000

And, once you breach the privacy of this Church Road, Ovens, Co Cork home, it’s pretty impressive inside and out, with pristine lawns, patio and barbecue areas, and parking for a clutch of cars. A bit of a feature is the neatly-trimmed, yet thick, planting across the house’s front facade, like a sort of moustache-less beard.

Internally, the 1,650 sq ft bungalow house is in very good decorative order, given a classical look thanks to the decor and some elegant and antique furniture which grace its rooms.

Selling agent is Jeremy Murphy, who guides it at €295,000, and that’s €100,000 less than when it was offered two years ago with a different auctioneering firm. Mr Murphy says it is now priced very well for a summer ‘12 sale.

Sherwood has one of its four bedrooms en suite, a 16’ by 11’ living room which, like several other rooms has a coved ceiling, plus an open marble fireplace, a formal dining room, double aspect kitchen/diner with pine units along with a utility.

VERDICT: Cork’s Sherwood has its own mini-forest of trees.

CORK CITY €295,000

There aren’t very many new homes to be had in and around Cork city’s UCC campus and the Lough, and that fact alone will bring viewers to cast an eye over 1, Hartlands Mews, off the Glasheen Road.

Built only four years ago, to a high spec and carrying a pretty good C1 BER energy efficiency rating, there’s four bedrooms and two en suites, thanks to its three storey design and status.

New to market with Timothy Sullivan Associates who guides at €295,000, No 1’s a very smart house, with a good layout and its entire top floor given over to en suite master bedroom use, with a 21’ by 11’ bedroom, fully tiled en suite and a walk-in storage space.

The mid level has three bedrooms, one with shower room, and the main family bathroom also has a shower.

Down at ground level, meanwhile, there’s a front 15’ by 12’ sitting room with bay window and this room then links back to a breakfast room, with kitchen off with wood units with pale wood units. Helping to tie the open plan look together is the tiled ground floor, and there’ s a guest WC off the hall, making for four loos in all.

There’s a paved front drive for parking and access, a side garden store and a west-facing back garden and patio.

VERDICT: No 1 Hartland Mews is good to go, with a good spec and in impeccable order, all within a walk of the city centre and the Lough for strolls, with the university also close to hand.

BISHOPSTOWN, CORK €375,000

Not the most exciting looking of house designs, nonetheless the four-bed detached homes at Cork’s Dunville always sell well — it’s the space, and location.

Here at this Bishopstown address on the fringes of the city’s western suburbs near the green belt, No 19 comes to market with agents Frank V Murphy & Co guiding €375,000, and that’s for a house which had recent enough upgrades, including a new Shaker-style beech kitchen, and wood flooring in the main living areas.

Fulfilling the need for a large living space, there’s a linked living/dining room, separated only by an arch and all floored in oak, so the total space is 25’ by 15’.

Then, there’s also a family room off the dining space, plus a study, both with hardwood floors, and the kitchen’s tiled, with beech units in the utility room to match those in the kitchen.

Upstairs are four bedrooms, all with built-ins, one’s en suite and there’s another shower in the family bathroom. The essentials for easy family living are evident also in the outdoors, with a lawned front garden and off-street parking, while the back garden is west-facing, with a good-sized patio with a 16’ by 11’ concrete block-built shed.

VERDICT: Handy for a range of schools, sports facilities, college, hospitals, and commuters.

TIMOLEAGUE, CORK €159,000

House numbers don’t normally go with rural bungalows, names are more usual, but No 4, Bayview, Maryboro covers both options. No’s 4 was built back in the mid 1980s, as one of five similar homes in a cul de sac in the West Cork village of Timoleague.

Thanks to its slightly elevated site, near the coast road, it has got views over the inner stretches of Courtmacsherry Bay, and all the services of the pretty village of Timoleague are to hand, while there’s a scenic walk (the old rail line now spruced up) along the inlet all the way to Courtmac and its beaches. Bandon and Clonakilty are a 15 minute drive away.

Selling agents Sherry FitzGerald Brennan Busteed now seek offers of €159,000 for this Bayview option, noting its corner position on a one-third acre site within the small scheme, where several neighbouring homes have already been upgraded.

There’s a basic floor plan at No 4, with a linked kitchen/living room, three compact bedrooms, bathroom and a slim lean-to sun room. The property also has an attached garage, and a car-port.

VERDICT: At its affordable €159k AMV, No 4 will surely attract the eye of a down-sizer or relocater who’ll spend a few more euros on modernising or extending.