Starter home: Carrs Hill, Cork, €220,000

Modern well-maintained two-bed townhouse is in walk-in condition.

Sq m 75 (810 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 2

Bathrooms: 2

BER: C1

Apartment-sized, at just over 800 sq ft, but in actual fact a two-storey two-bed mid-terraced townhouse, No 3 Highfields is pitched at first time buyers with its €220,000 price tag.

And that price level, coincidentally, is the threshold set last week by the Central Bank for 90% mortgages for first-time buyers - , so intending purchasers needing finance will need no more than €22k (still a considerable-enough sum to save) to go a-bidding on this modern home, on the edge of Douglas village.

First-time buyers are firmly in the sights of selling agent Paul O’Shea of Sherry FitzGerald, who says the standard of maintenance here in No 3 Highfields is above the norm, and that it’s a nice home to show off.

It’s in a distinct, terraced section of this large Maryborough Woods development which was constructed in the 2000s by builders O’Brien and O’Flynn, and is most quickly reached off Carrs Hill, rather than Maryborough Hill.

With a front facade that’s mostly brick, it’s got a simple layout internally: a front sitting room with fireplace (there’s also gas central heating,) plus a bright rear kitchen/dining room with patio door access to a back garden (with shed) for evening sun.

Overhead are two double bedrooms, with built-ins, and there’s a bathroom with shower between them.

There’s room enough to park a car in front, and behind the garden has a decent-sized brick patio, corner shed, small lawn and fence and wall boundaries.

VERDICT: Easy to keep, and under the new 90% threshold for first-time buyers.