Location: Glasheen Road, Cork, €145/155,000

Size: Sq m 45/65 (500/700 sq ft)

ABSOLUTELY as good as brand-new, out-of-the-box builds are this side-by-side duo of townhouses on Cork City’s Glasheen Road. In fact, about the only thing remaining of the original early 1900s homes here are the lower section of their front walls.

From there onwards, upwards and inwards, all’s shiny and new.

And, after a full makeover by a man who grew up in No 12, and who bought the adjoining No 13 for a mutually beneficial makeover a year or two ago, they are both up for sale, individually or together, and with 200 sq ft and €10k in the difference between them.

Location is at the western end of the Glasheen Road, one of those trio of residential roads running west out of the city past UCC and towards Bishopstown (the others are College Road and Magazine Road), and the Glasheen Road is the longer of them by quite a stretch.

Nos 12 and 13 are close to Flannerys Bar and the Clashduv Road, so the location is tops for easy of access to shops, schools and colleges, and to hospitals such as the CUH and Bons, who are major employers.

They could appeal as equally to investors as to owneroccupiers, and private buyers could be FTBs, traders down, or those just looking for a handy, and exceptionally easy to keep, city suburban base.

Selling agents for both are John Barry and Dennis Guerin of Frank V Murphy & Co, who say they are about the best rebuilds of this size they’ve come across.

The houses’ renewal was a bit of a personal project and a badge of pride for the man from No 12, who adds that No 13 had been unoccupied for almost all of his life, nearly 50 years.

He drafted in engineer John McCarthy to oversee the work to be undertaken, and builder was Brendan Troy of Troy Construction, with interior design by Elizabeth Honan.

They’re equally well built and finished now, extended slightly to the back (so there’s only small back yards, facing south) with double glazing, lots of insulation, and fitted kitchens, quality bathrooms, etc, with electric storage heating while also being plumbed for gas if desired.

The larger, at 700 sq ft, has one of its two bedrooms en suite and has an airy, front-to back main living space, while the 500 sq ft No 13 definitely feels more slender.

Apart from private interest, the past year saw investors back on the hunt and they’ll also run their eye over Nos 12 and 13, Mr Barry predicts.

“The past year has seen good demand for investment property around Cork City: it increased noticeably since the 2013 Budget, primarily down to the increase in DIRT from

33% to 41% from the start of 2014, encouraging investors to take their funds off deposit and invest in bricks and mortar.”

“Investors who purchase a property before the end of 2014 and keep it for at least seven years will not have to pay capital gains tax,” Mr Barry notes.

Investors were most actively buying close to UCC, CIT, hospitals and around the city centre and one sale, a do-er upper, went €75,000 over its guide due to its location and potential for upgrades and adding value.

“Demand on this was driven by small builders/investors looking to target the UCC student population of 18,000, and on this property, there were 46 individual viewings, and eight different bidders of which seven made cash offers,” he reveals.

Mr Barry said it illustrated the current demand for good, long-term investment opportunities in established residential areas.

To prise cash out of these investors’s hands, property “will have to offer them a gross return of approximately 8%,” he notes, adding that just prior to Christmas Bank of Ireland and permanent TSB launched new buy to let mortgages.

VERDICT: Nos 12 and 13 are mint condition walk-in buys.