Trading up: Tivoli, Cork City €295,000

There’s a feeling of living amid the forests at The Coach House, off the beaten track in the heart of Cork’s suburban Montenotte.

This is a top-class coachhouse rebuild, done in 2008 by locally-living architect Declan Tyner, one of just three houses down along the high-walled Beale’s Hill, off Lover’s Walk, and just by the coach house, the road gets restricted to a pedestrian path, which leads to the Lower Glanmire Road, making for a swift alternative walk to the city centre.

Very secure, and featuring as a deft design touch, hefty cedarwood shutters which can seal up the c 800 sq ft house as a ‘lock up and leave’ option.