Trading up: Ballinlough, Cork €375,000

Now about 60 years old, this detached four-bed family home in Cork called Curra has an interesting back-story.

Built around 1955 near the Catholic Church in old suburban Ballinlough, on the main road junction with Dunmore Lawn, it was a shop for nearly 20 years, before being made over to full-time domestic use in the 1970s.

But, even older is its link to the old, long-broken up Thornhill Estate, which is now recalled in the name Thornhill House, on Ballinlough’s Credit Union building, and on two blocks of apartments built by the community park and tennis court. Here, part of the old limestone wall of the Thornhill Estate serves as a side/back wall for this four-bed, 1,990 sq ft property Curra.

Just painted up on the outside, Curra is listed for sale with estate agent Brendan Bowe, who guides at a very achievable €375,000: a similar era (but extended and modernised) detached nearby at the junction of Willow Lawn and Boreenmanna Road has just sold after a price drop, for c €425,000.

Mr Bowe says that Curra is on a bright corner site, with a garage, in a very well serviced suburb within walking distance of the city centre, and has great potential.

VERDICT: Detached, and ready for more service, in a well-served locality.