House of the week: Maryborough, Cork €650,000

Size: Sq m 212 (2,290 sq ft)

With a house address that sounds like the start of golf game, 22 Augusta Drive tees itself up this month as a good marker of the recovery in the upper end of Cork’s suburban family home market.

One of the bigger and best houses in this section of the Maryborough Woods scheme overlooking Douglas Golf Course, No 22 carries a €650,000 asking price in Spring 2014, hoping to catch the market’s recent spring back from years of price falls.

It was last offered to market in September 2011, priced at €680,000, and in the time since, the market fell, steadied and rose: now, with a restored confidence matched by pent-up demand, how far back has the upswing pendulum travelled? We’ll know when it sells, but it’s unlikely the heady mid-2000s levels of €1m values will be seen for a long time yet.

The National Price Register doesn’t show any Augusta Drive sales at all, going back to 2010, but it does show a detached in nearby Elden making €445,000 earlier this year, and a one-off big rebuild called Kaduna on great gardens making €1.24m in 2013. Other than that, there’s only one or two other Maryborough Douglas sales over €500k in the past few years.

Predicting very good viewing interest in No 22 (it had been available to lease in the interim at €2,000 per month) are Ann O’Mahony and Sheila O’Flynn of Sherry FitzGerald, pointing to the lack of supply of very good walk-in homes in the greater city area, as well as to the quality of the interior here.

It was done top to bottom by interior designer Carmel Downey, and it’s just shy of 2,300 sq ft, with the decision made to reduce the bedroom number here from the original five to four, thus giving a very large master suite to the front of the house, now complete with walk-in dressingroom/robes, top en suite and a balcony to the front, overlooking the golf course... now disappearing behind evergreen trees. A second bedroom to the rear of No 22 also has an en suite bathrooms, while the main family bathroom has a large, corner jetted bath, bidet and extensive tiling.

Downstairs, the main largest reception rooms interlink for a 35’ front-to-back span, and the kitchen/ diningroom’s a very decent 21’ by 17’, with west-facing bay window. Units are painted solid timber, with granite tops and island/ breakfast bar, with tumbled marble floor tiles, continuing to the hall, guest WC and utility.

Decor leans to the classical and relatively unfussy, depending on quality materials which won’t date, and similarly outside, money has been spent on ‘good bones’ materials, and landscaping which is going to be easy to keep in hand .

No 22 has off-street parking on the cobbled drive for a few cars, and the west-aspect back includes gravel area, patio, pergola, feature standard roses, some lawn, and a tucked-away shed for essential storage.

Location is within a walk of Douglas village, via Carrs Hill or Maryborough Hill, and the houses in August Drive have extra parking on a section of the cul de sac by the boundary with Douglas Golf Club.

VERDICT: Ticks lots of boxes, and for those who don’t want or need a fifth bedroom, this variation on the original floor plan gives a bit more pampering to the main occupants. Unless you want to add a sun room, there’s not a penny more to be spent. Now, it’s up to the market to restore a (premium) value on Augusta Drive once more.