Trading up: Douglas, Cork €275,000

Little and large co-exist at the top of the Rosebank estate, just off Cork’s Douglas Road. 

Size: 74 sq m (800 sq ft) 

Bathrooms: 2 

Bedrooms: 2 

BER: C3

Here, there’s a handful of 1970s-built, ever-popular townhouses called Elmbank, set in an L-shape in part of the once very large orchard gardens of a prime-set bungalow, The Elms.

That sizeable detached house (which sold for €770,000 in 2014) has just been turned into a spectacular two-storey home, post-purchase, facing south over still-decent gardens.

Round about the time The Elms sold, another neighbouring large-build — Villa Franca, at the top of Ballincurrig Park — was also snapped up after years on the market, and it too is now coming to the end of its equally significant makeover.

And, like The Elms, Villa Franca had townhouses built in its orchard garden, also in the 1970s, with both projects, Elmbank and Orchard Close, done by builders Lanes to tap into an emerging trading-down market, back in the day of rising oil prices.

Traders-downs, and singles, are still to the fore on resales, and now No 10 Elmbank is up for sale.

It’s an end-terrace, priced at €275,000 by Kevin O’Sullivan of Barry Auctioneers, and has c 800 sq ft with two first-floor bedrooms, kitchen/dining room to the back, plus largish sitting room.

No 10’s just a tad on the dated side, and Elmbank has mature communal grounds in front, and to the back of No 10 is a walled garden/yard with car port, reached by an up-and-over garage door.

VERDICT: A self-enclosed package.