Bandon: new beginning

Bandon, €298,000

BILLED as the first new house start in Bandon, West Cork, since the market’s fall off a cliff back in 2008, Ashgrove Meadows is just off the town’s bypass road.

Local man Tony Barry, who started in the construction trade in 2001, is behind the re-start at Ashgrove Meadows, with two of six houses getting under way this month and foundations poured (he’s finishing a school build project in tandem, with an urgency for September completion at Hamilton High.)

Mr Barry acquired this circa two-acre site which had work started back in 2007, via Nama, according to estate agent Don Brennan of Sherry FitzGerald Brennan Busteed. And, while there’s planning permission for 2,200sq ft, 2,800sq ft, and 2,900sq ft homes, Mr Barry has opted to build two of the smaller ‘B’ options first. There’s early interest in one, site four, and most inquiries so far are from Cork City-based home hunters, and traders-up, Mr Brennan adds.

Design is two-storey, a crisp modern take on the traditional or vernacular farmhouse, dressed up with double height corner glazing and with a main open-plan kitchen/living/dining, plus second reception in a side wing, along with a ground floor guest bedrooms next to a bathroom.

Overhead are three bedrooms, one with en suite and feature corner window, and main family bathroom. Auctioneer Don Brennan says they’ll be built to high air-tightness levels and will be the first A-rated homes in Bandon.

The €298k price guide is for a home done to so-called ‘builder’s finish,’ ie without fitted kitchen or fireplaces, etc. The first two 2,200sq ft homes are on sites of c 0.2 of an acre, and can be built with 300sq ft detached garages also. Planners have indicated there’ will be no issue if other site buyers want to put the smaller, ‘B’ type on the larger sites earmarked for five-beds of up to 2,900sq ft.

Sites have been cleared, and boundary walls are up, so prospective buyers will get a very clear view of exactly what site plots are on offer in each of the six settings. Location is at Spring Lane, about 200 metres off the Cork end of the Bandon bypass road.

VERDICT: Brand new homes, highly energy efficient, but buyers will have to select the final finishes themselves– which, in any case, most may well prefer.