Trading up: Airport Hill, Cork €539,000

It’s called Three Gables, but one of the three gables on this Lehenaghmore home really is quite stand-out: it has a raised balcony with elevated decking, deliberately placed for spanning dramatic views of Cork city’s western suburbs. 

Size: 252 sq m (2,700 sq ft) 

Bathrooms: 4 

Bedrooms: 4 

BER: B3

This high-end, hill-set home is up on the broad shoulders of Cork’s airport hill, above Wilton and Togher, and just higher than the Mathew Hill Ruden Homes new homes development which has soldiered on the years of downturn, selling constantly due to convenient, accessible location.

Three Gables is a dormer home and a one-off, on a 0.9 acre site with spectacular long views up the Lee valley and down to the saucer-like setting of Cork’s western fringes, and it’s one of the key features of this 2,700 sq ft house, says its selling agent Barry Smith.

The James G Coughlan & Associates auctioneer guides Three Gables at €539,000 and says it earns lots of descriptive superlatives for its space, finishes, maintenance and, of course, its setting and views.

Three of its five bedrooms are downstairs, one overhead has an adjoining study, and it has French doors to big end-gable balcony, plus a cast iron spiral exterior steps back down to decking, patio and BBQ areas and garden pond.

Kitchen, bathrooms and flooring all have the hallmarks of considerable expenditure, and the c 2,700 sq ft family home is almost encircled by a winding drive, behind electric gates, and has a double garage.

VERDICT: High-end home