Starter home: Douglas Village, Cork €155,000

Sq m 67 (720 sq ft)

No 5 in Douglas West Village has been extended to the back – so just how tiny was it to begin with? After all, and after being added to, it’s now only 720 sq ft, which in truth is only about the size of a decent apartment.

This slender, mid-terraced home is close to John O’Sullivan’s pub and a raft of shops and services in the back Douglas village, and is in excellent order, say Dennis Guerin and John Barry of Frank V Murphy & Co, who guide the compact, but well-equipped, three-bed at €155,000.

To compensate for its narrowness, it stretches back quite a distance from its street-side entrance, and earns the ‘deceptively spacious’ tag as a result. Its main living space is a decent 16’ by 15’, with recessed lighting and feature exposed old brick wall along one side by an open tread staircase, and there’s also a kitchen/dining room with units on one side, breakfast table on the other and with an overhead Velux, plus slender patio door to a 32’ long sheltered patio garden and dining out space. The house has kept some old world charms and also manages to squeeze in three bedrooms, plus a guest loo and a separate shower room. It has double glazing, gas heating, and is likely to have an almost equal appeal to investors, and to owner-occupiers, say the agents, because of the central Douglas location.

There’s on-street parking, shops galore and nearby is a riverside public amenity walk, while the south ring road is adjacent.

VERDICT: Small parcel, but good.