Trading up: Farnanes, Cork €300,000

Size: 184sq m (2,000sq ft)

Called after the so-called ‘Tree of Life’ is The Baobab, a bungalow home west of Cork city on an elevated shoulder of hill at Farnanes, with sweeping southerly views, and gardens of a third of an acre.

The sales brochure says the tiered garden with veg patch and flower beds is “a haven of peacefulness and tranquillity”. But it doesn’t mention if they contain baobab trees, unusual large woody natives of Madagascar, Africa and Australia (lyricised in the classic book The Little Prince) — and some varieties of baobab are capable of holding 120,000 litres of water within their trunks — handy for when water metering comes in. (Handily, too, this house has its own private well, and there’s a community water supply on the road.)