Blackrock home, Diundanion, is courting favour

Soaring demand for houses in one of Cork city’s award-winning architectural gems is pushing prices upwards.

Dundanion, Blackrock €275,000

Sq m 115 (1,238 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 4

Bathrooms: 2

BER: N/A

Best Feature: Back in vogue

FORM an orderly, please, and no pushing at the back. Estate agent Fiona Waldron can expect to see familiar faces (and lots of them) at her latest listing at 32, Dundanion Court, a 1960s interloper in Cork’s leafy Blackrock suburb.

She started this year with the listing of No 31 next door, guided at a mere €165,000 as the two previous sales were in the €130/€140k category.

Around the same time, though No 12 went ‘sale agreed’, at €230,000, so clearly with price movement and shifting, soaring demand was afoot.

Indeed. Some 90 people came to view No 31, and it was bid to a high of €290,000 to a private buyer... leaving lots of underbidders.

With that clear evidence of price hardening on the back of this year’s two concluded sales, now Ms Waldron of Jeremy Murphy & Associates guides the adjoining, end-terrace No 32 at €275,000, has it already under offer at that sum, and viewings are booked in for next week, across the board, from first time buyers to downsizers.

Design of the scheme was by city architect Neil Hegarty, who won a RIAI Silver Medal in 1970 for Dundanion Court, done in rows of sixes and fours around two central communal courtyards. No 32 is end-terrace, as it’s tucked into a more private corner off one of those courtyards.

No 32 is owner-occupied and well kept, almost a mirror image of No 31, with four bedrooms, and with deference to its original brick and timber features (open plan ground floor feel) and has one of its four beds en suite.

Its vendor has been here for 15 years, and bought for the location first and foremost, near to Blackrock village and notes “they’re now right back in fashion, with the brick and other finishes.”

It has gas central heating, large double glazed windows and new doors, with French doors to a well-kept and colourful garden, the kitchen has been replaced and opened up, the roof has also been redone, and there’s a nearby garage.

VERDICT: Auctioneer Fiona Waldron admits “I love this house and would move in tomorrow if I could.” Good: she’s going to be camped there now on viewings, as they are so very back in vogue.