Starter home: Turner’s Cross, €85,000

Size: 54 sq m (600 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 2

Bathrooms: 1

BER: G

Best Feature: Heavenly vista

REDEMPTION could be at hand for run-down No 3, Evergreen Road — an uplifting example of 20th century ecclesiastical and architectural design is directly across the road, in the distinctive shape of Christ the King Church.

Likely to date back the best part of a century, No 3’s a small footprint onto the public road at Cork City’s Turner’s Cross.

Back in 1929-1931, this house stood as silent witness to the construction of one of the more unusual Catholic churches,built in reinforced concrete, as an Irish first.

The 1,200-person capacity church, done by US architect, Barry Byrne, has a number of Irish design and build ‘firsts’, most notably for its then-pioneering materials and for its span, suspended ceiling and glazing.

Byrne was a student of master architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, and although the church’s concrete construction prompted a strike by local masons, at least one Cork stone mason, John Maguire, got work here.

Maguire carved the elongated sculpture of Christ the King, to a design by American, John Storrs. The church is one of only a small handful in Cork ( St Finbarre’s Cathedral rightly gets top billing) that gets viewing recommendations in travel guides.

That’s the church: less to say so far about No 3 Evergreen Road, other than it’s in full view of the church, and is a compact c 600 sq ft , two-bed terraced house which needs to be renovated, from top to bottom.

It has an overgrown, but decent-sized south-facing back garden as a bonus, and is just short walk to the city centre.

VERDICT: Mark Gosling of Behan Irwin Gosling guides at €85,000: the church was built 85 years ago - for £30,000.