Starter home: Ballyvolane, Cork City, €247,500

There is plenty of room for expansion with this corner-sited family home in the northside suburb of Ballyvolane in Cork city, says Tommy Barker .

Size: 116 sq m (1,250 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 1

BER: C3

A CORNER SITE setting at 12 Kinvara Drive, in Cork city’s Ballyvolane, sort of sets it up for future growth. “The size makes it suitable for development, many properties in this location have extended the property with an extra bedroom/office or living area to the side,” says David Linehan of Thomas J O’Driscoll Auctioneers.

A three-bed semi-d, on a bus route and facing onto a green area, it has a sort of wedge-shaped site, wide at the front with plenty of front/side space, and then narrowing toward the end of its walled-in back garden where there’s a shed.

It was built in the 1990s by developers O’Brien and O’Flynn, and now has 1,250 sq ft in all as it currently stands, with a high ceilinged sun room with Velux off the kitchen/dining room, and with the back garden accessed from a sliding patio door.

To the front, there’s a sitting room with slight bay window and a cast iron open fireplace, and overhead No 12 has three bedrooms, two of them doubles; one’s a single, plus main family bathroom. Right now, that’s the only bathroom/WC in the house, so if new owner choose to extend after purchase, or in time to come, that’s probably an area they’ll address, perhaps putting on a guest WC and another reception room, and a fourth, overhead en-suite master bedroom.

It faces south, has gas heating, and has wrought iron front gates and off-street parking, making it both pet and family friendly.

VERDICT: Good to grow.

Best Feature: A smart buy