Trading up: Donnybrook, Cork, €320,000

There’s a whole lot more house now at 42 Calderwood than when first built back in the 1970s.

Back then, it was one of the earlier suburbans schemes here, done by builder Owen O’Callaghan, who went on to become one of the south’s most diverse and savvy developers.

O’Callaghan’s still in the game, building new homes and currently most active in Ballincollig’s Lisheen.

Calderwood, up on Donnybrook Hill above Douglas, was one his earliest forays and since then, its current owners have enlarged and upgraded, so that now it’s a five-bedroomed family home, in a long-established setting by green within this cul de sac park.

Set on a slope, and with a multi-use three-roomed workshop to the back, No 42 has been extended to the side, where there’s now a ground floor en suite bedroom, and one of the four more bedrooms upstairs also has a further en suite.

Auctioneer Joe Gavin of James G Coughlan Associates seeks offers around €320,000 for No 42, which he says is pristine and in showhouse condition, “tastefully extended, with no expense spared.”

The good bedrooms tally is balanced by two reception rooms, one of which is 21’ by 11’, with wood-burning stove, while the kitchen is 19’ by 8’ Behind is an enclosed garden, with south-west aspect and water feature, plus workshop rooms.

VERDICT: Way more house for the same sort of sum standard semi-ds are making on the city side of Douglas.