Starter homes: Ballinlough, Cork €290,000

Size: Sq m 101 (1,085 sq ft)

Coming hot on the heels of a recent ‘sale agreed’ in the same suburban enclave is 10 Knockrea Mews, a semi-d off the city end of Cork’s main Ballinlough Road. It’s new to market with Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald who guides at €290,000, and who says it now just needs some modernisation and updating of decor, on top of the purchase price.

No. 10 arrives for sale just after No 6 four doors away got a rapid dispatch via agent Jeremy Murphy: No. 6 appeared in these pages a month ago with a price guide of €275,000 which was considerably exceeded in bidding — thought to have comfortably topped €300,000.

Now, a number of the underbidders on No. 6 are likely to turn up on the door of No. 10, comparing and contrasting; in layout, they’ll be mirror images as the first was a right-hand semi-d, and this is a left-hander, with reception rooms front and back, and kitchen accessed off the back one which is in the converted garage section.

There’s back garden (west-facing) access from the utility, plus a guest WC, and oil central heating. Knockrea Mews is within a walk of the city centre, close to girls’ school Our Lady of Lourdes as well as St Anthony’s for boys, with public parks nearby, plus a neighbourly green.

VERDICT: Lovely, quiet cul de sac setting.