House of the week: Tower, Cork €750,000
One of ten one-off homes built in the run-up to Celtic Tiger times in what’s referred to as a local ‘Millionaires’ Row’ (these things all being relative) Belvedere House has all the space any family could want, and then some.
Although dormer-ish to the front, it actually drops down internally on its sloping site, and so has no fewer than four internal levels.
Belvedere punches in at over 6,000 sq ft, and has seven bedrooms as it stands, one for every night of the week.
If you think ‘I don’t need seven, I’ll make a gym out of one, and a study out of another,’ well, keep thinking: it already has those extra-use rooms, in addition.
Private homes don’t come much bigger, or need to, unless you’re a property magnate or a JP McManus, or of that ilk with cash and real millions to burn.
It’s not revealed how much it cost to build and finish out this 6,000 sq ft home on a site of one third of an acre fringing wooded valleys and the Muskerry Golf Course, but it’s a good bet that it cost a lot more than it is now selling for.
At its revised guide of €750,000, that equates to €125 per square foot, sort of what a builder will charge today for a standard build, and this is full of split levels, concrete floors, glazing galore, and evenhas a cruise ship-like -tiered external deck.
Belvedere House went up for sale for its owners, who live overseas, late in 2015, with Pat Falvey of Coldwell Banker Estates at a then-quoted €850,000, and his sale pitch put it firmly on the radar of executives and managers in the likes of Apple (with its thousands of employees just a few miles away at Hollyhill) as well as similar ilk at EMC in Ovens, and VMWare in Ballincollig.
It has been rented out in recent years, and now is being sold as a private home of substance, listed with joint agent Michael O’Donovan of Savills.
Since the asking price reduction this month, it is already getting some traction, and is now under offer at €700,000: where it ends up when sold is an open question right now as spring brings a stretch to the days, and extra light to sale viewings.
Belvedere House was laid out to trap as much light and views as possible from its rear, with distinctive and jutting angular wings opening to its double decks with glass balusters and outdoor seating spots, all overlooking rural greenery and Muskerry’s fairways.
The house’s one-third of an acre and its relatively private site is simply landscaped.
But it also ‘borrows’ the golf course landscape to good effect, and the property’s double garage adds further to the buildings on site.
Internally, there’s an airy central hall/landing/atrium with accommodation over four levels with mezzanines/walkways, with three bedrooms (including the master bedroom) on the ground floor, with four more on the top/second floor, and three of the seven are en suite.
There’s a large living space in the lower ground level, with multi-fuel stove, plus gym and home office, while the ground floor proper has a kitchen/dining room in one projecting wing, and a large family living room facing it in the other wing of this very broad home. Both wings are flooded with light.
The build features concrete floors with underfloor heating, gas-fired. It has a C1 BER, and what it might lack in architectural finesse it make up for in its engineering and sheer heft.
Joint agents Savills and Coldwell Banker say “the design allows for great versatility in the use of all rooms.
While impressive in size and design, it is when you are outside, sitting on the patio deck or garden looking at the house, that you can appreciate the remarkable design even further.”
Size is to the fore at this Muskerry golf course side home close to Blarney and Cork city.
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