Starter home: Ballintemple, Cork €195,000

A piece of period home pedigree in one of Cork’s salubrious suburbs is available at a snip of normal neighbourhood prices, says Tommy Barker.

Sq m 102 (1,100 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 1

BER: G

IT’S GOT period home pedigree, and charm, but on a modest scale — welcome to 1 JamesVille.

The slender-looking end-terraced home is nest to the AIB bank in Cork’s suburban Ballintemple, on the way out towards Blackrock village: houses nearby range from tiny cottages, to historic villas, and swanky semis with Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian provenances.

Keeping much of its original features, No 1 will have an appeal to relocators, traders-down, and starters out, and is described as “most elegant, and well maintained,” by its selling agent Timothy Sullivan.

It’s got a surprising enough 1,100 sq ft, so that’s on a par with a lot of standard three-bed semi-ds, and yes, this home does indeed rise to three bedrooms, thanks to being three storeys tall.

It’s set back marginally from the road, with front gate and garden, and has a far longer garden behind, with southerly aspect, so may have extension/sun room potential out back here, now or in the future.

Right now, it has two ground floor reception rooms, both with fireplaces, and a kitchen; there’s a first floor bedroom, with a fireplace, and a main bathroom, and then the top floor has two more bedrooms, one to the front with small dormer window and cast iron fireplace.

No 1 has gas central heating, sash windows, some polished wood floors and a feature stained glass panel.

VERDICT: A bite-sized take on period home grandeur; after all, a mid-terraced house up the road is coming to market guiding at €1.1 million (p14-17) - but that’s a whopper.