Trading up: Cobh, Cork Harbour; €250,000

You need do nothing bar move your family into Cobh’s No 2, Coolamber Avenue, as it’s already extended, has four bedrooms, has been wrapped in insulation and has new windows, bathrooms, kitchen, heating... the works, really.

It even, if you go upstairs and peer out, has got a view down over the brow of the hill to Cork harbour.

No 2 dates to the 1970s, but in no way feel its age, says local Cobh estate agent Johanna Murphy who lists this 1,340 sq ft home at €250,000, and she says it is ideal for a young and growing family, within a downhill walk of the town and water’s edge.

Apart from its interior freshness, its gardens are good, with a steel shed in the walled-in back and has off-street parking in front, and it’s next to a green area amid the few sections of Coolamber, a mature and popular estate, for kids to kick a ball around on.

It has had its side garage converted and extended into, and so now there’s a ground floor fourth bedroom with large, walk-in wardrobe, playroom, sitting room, kitchen/diner, pantry and utility, plus tiled shower room.

Overhead are a main bathroom, freshly tiled, and three more bedrooms.

“Coolamber is a great place to live in Cobh as you are near all amenities, within a walk of the schools, and if new owners wanted, they could use the ground floor bedroom with its walk-in robe by the shower room as a granny flat,” suggests Ms Murphy.

Verdict: Now one of the better homes in the area