Trading up: Glanmire, Cork €395,000

Built just over 20 years ago, the part two-storey, part-dormer 2,200 sq ft family home called Snugboro could not be more centrally set in Cork’s Glanmire community.

Close to the bottom of Church Hill and the Texaco station, as well as the Butlerstown river (there’s a gate to the river and wooded backdrop at the garden’s edge, by a seating area), it is set across the road from the noted Gael Choláiste, on a site of 0.2 of an acre with all amenities also close to hand and Cork City five miles away.

Estate agent Andrew Moore describes Snugboro as well-designed and well-presented, and it has good decor levels, plus a powerful-looking, black range cooker in the pine-fitted kitchen, which also has an Amtico floor.