Two houses, close neighbours, but utterly different in Ballinlough/Douglas

There’s only 100 yards or so between two new-to-market offers with agent Timothy Sullivan, and only €25,000 in their prices difference, but they are utterly different buys and markets.

Ballinlough/Douglas

€285,000/€260,000

Sq ft; 1,250/1,150

Bedrooms: 4/3

BER: D1/G

No 3 Pinewood at the city end of Cork’s Ballinlough Roadarrives for sale seeking €285,000, just after the do-er up 800 sq ft No 6 Pinewood is ‘sale agreed’ at€165,000.

No 3 (pic left) is a three-storey house with four bedrooms, done up on all three of its levels, with a modern makeover and open plan space at ground level, and in all there’s now 1,250sq ft in this offer, says No 3’s selling agent Mr Sullivan, who has a detached three-bed also just listed in Marble Hall Lawn (pic right).

Location of both are at the city end of the Ballinlough and Douglas roads, near St Finbarr’s Hospital, so it’s just a walk to town from here and No 3 Pinewood’s a walk-in buy in the other meaning also.

Tim Sullivan says No 3 has a high-spec finish, and modest- sized ground floor extension, so now, apart from the separate front reception room, with bay window, there’s a rear kitchen/dining/living (pictured below)that’s part open plan and up to 22’ by 15’, with walnut timber and high-gloss kitchen units and French doors to a brick-paved patio.

The back garden has a southerly aspect, and is enclosed, with a raised portion at the far end, all greened in and cloaked with luscious ivies up the walls, and there’s a plumbed store room used as a utility.

No 3 has its main bathroom on the first floor return level, and two bedrooms per each of the two upper floors, with a large wood-clad box dormer to the front and back, giving good attic level headroom and elevated views (including to the Elysian tower) to the two uppermost bedrooms (the new buyers of No 6 might want to take notes, or even visit No 3 on the sly, for a reconnoitre.

Meanwhile, also with the same agent in the vicinity is Avondale, a three-bed detached early/mid 1900s home within hideaway estate Marble Hall Lawn.

Avondale has 1,150 sq ft, three- beds, many original features, a G BER and needs upgrading: it has a €260,000 guide with Tim Sullivan, reflecting the amount of work needed.

VERDICT: One’s done, the other’s a project