Harbour Gem: East Ferry, Cork Harbour €1.5 million

Size: Sq m 462 (5,080 sq ft)

There’s been a 10% price drop, along with a change of agents, in the case of the sublimelyset East Ferry Lodge, an upgraded Victorian Cork harbour home with sea frontage, swimming pool, and guest cottage.

The top-quality 5,000 sq ft plus home at Gold Point is now re-launched with Benjamin Haythornthwaite of Sherry FitzGerald’s Country Homes division, along with Janet Higgins of Sherry FitzGerald O’Donovan in nearby Midleton.

They guide at €1.5 million, down from last May’s initial €1.65m AMV and in the interim, Cork’s coastal homes seem to have had a rebound from the doldrums of the last five years. Latest strong sale is a West Cork contemporary home, the 5,000 sq ft Glasheenaulinn, on 40 acres near Castletownshend: it made €2m via Charles McCarthy in Skibbereen, jointly with Savills.

Cork harbour’s manageable period gem, East Ferry Lodge, has been the family home of a captain of a pharma company across the bay, and has benefited from a meticulous renovation and is "secluded but still retaining such a strong connection with the outside world, on mature sea-fronting gardens with a southerly aspect, on a stretch of Cork’s most beautiful coastline," say Sherry FitzGerald.

It’s a 30 minute commute from Cork city and airport, and local as well as overseas interest is expected.

VERDICT: Tide and sentiment has turned back in favour of special buys like this big "lodge".