Lower prices to tempt buyers: Innishannon, Cork €274,950-349,950

Size: Sq m 140/170

THERE’S interest built up in the last few remaining houses in the 52-unit Fleming Construction development Ard Aoibhinn, in Cork’s Innishannon, the village where West Cork sort of begins to unfold.

It’s about a 20 minute commute from Cork City, and when launched back in 2008 as the market spun off its overwound axis, detached homes here were priced at €570,000 and €650,000. Now, after a flurry of sales of all house types in the past year, the last five are selling from €274,950 to €349,950, via agents Savills, showing a c 50% drop in prices, for high-quality homes built using Fleming’s ‘fusion’ steel frame method, with good B2 and B3 BER ratings secured.

They’ve got features like central vacuum, Nordic pine/ uPVC double glazing, zoned oilfired central heating, and solar panels for water heating.

The two house types left to sell (including former showhouses, one floored the other fully furnished) are four-bed detacheds, at 1,500 and 1,830 sq ft, and each has two en suite bedrooms. The larger type has an extra ground floor family room to the back, with a larger master en suite bedroom to the back, but the front facades look pretty identical — for those with size/status anxiety. The five remaining sales will see the conclusion of Fleming’s Innishannon rocky road project, which back in 2008 included a novel ‘Exchange Bond’ in place of a deposit or bridging’, when about 20 house sales were agreed.

Now, after a long hiatus (and a couple of three-bed semis being offered in 2011 for the receivers via Allsops) the scheme is all but sold: Ian Lyons and Catherine McAuliffe of Savills put the last 16 up for sale in Jun 2013, with five sales having closed since then, and a further six are now ‘sale agreed’. All of the three-beds are sold and “these last five detached homes are likely to go ‘sale agreed’ over the next few weeks and months,” says Mr Lyons on the basis of current interest and offers made. “It shows that there’s now a great appetite for good quality family homes in desirable locations such as Innishannon,” adds the agent.

VERDICT: New homes, built to a high standard, above the popular village, between the city and Bandon.