Trading up: Maryborough, Cork €370,000

Sq m: 126 (1,360 sq ft)

It looks like what it is — a former showhouse with those colourful ‘designer’ touches, so No 22 Wyndgates really is a walk-in job for new owners. Just bring smart, colour-coordinated clothes.

The four-bed semi-d is towards the front of the O’Brien and O’Flynn development up at Maryborough Ridge, above Douglas and the golf club development, and at the €370,000 guide includes all furniture, drapes, rugs, and kitchen appliances, stress selling agents Ann O’Mahony and Michael O’Donovan of Sherry FitzGerald, adding “as an original showhouse, it’s in immaculate decorative order.”

Added to that is a southfacing back garden, interconnecting living/dining rooms at ground level with oak floors, bright kitchen with utility, and there’s an alarm.

Upstairs there are three double bedrooms, one en suite, and one single, and main family bathroom.

Gardens are landscaped front and back, and as an indication that Maryborough Ridge has been done a good few years already, the back boundary walls are being steadily and attractively cloaked with ivy. It’s a sort of landscaping greenery that — unlike rolled out grass turf — just can’t be faked.

VERDICT: Dressed to impress.