Starter home: Owenahincha, West Cork €95,000

Priced within reach of first-time buyers at €95,000, Strand Cottage will have an obvious appeal to holiday-home hunters, given its setting, by a Blue Flag beach.

The dated, four-bed bungalow, with two-room studio, in on the beach road at Owenahincha, along the Wild Atlantic Way. Rosscarbery’s a couple of miles away, and Clonakilty’s a 15-minute drive.

Agent Michéal Duggan, of Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill, admits it needs some refurbishment (as does much of Owenahincha, where several new tourism-related developments are proposed), but its basics are all sound, and there’s an unexpected quarter-acre as grounds.

VERDICT: The sea is only over the dunes.