Hunting for new possibilities at Hunter’s Moon on Rochestown Road

This one-off slice of 1970s architecture has bags of space to rise to its potential, says Tommy Barker.

The fortunes of the Cork suburban home Hunter’s Moon, have waxed and waned over the years since the early 2000s: now, the time could be spot-on for this moon to rise, brightly, again.

Called after the traditional post-harvest, sanguine or ‘blood’ moon usually rising in October in the northern hemisphere, this evocative nomenclature take on the night skies was built as a one-off to an architect’s plan for a trading up family back in the 1970s on a prime quarter-acre site.

Cork’s Hunter’s Moon subsequently sold once or twice, found a use for a period as a part medical-related practise, but now is certain to go back wholly to private, family usage once in new ownership.

Back listed with agent Stephen Clarke of REA O’Donoghue Clarke auctioneers, he seeks offers around the odd-looking asking price-tag of €639,000, and that’s for a five-bed home with just over 4,000 sq ft of living space, including several large-sized ground floor rooms.

Unlived in now for a period, it needs some updating and TLC, a bit more work than just decorating, but all the basics are good and several internal finishes have already been improved.

An interior architect or designer, or just a buyer with ‘smarts’ and some extra euros, could transform its character and give it a bit of edge once more.

Its location on the Rochestown Road, one of a number of large 1970s and ‘80s builds, facing Wainsfort on a private site 500 metres from the Rochestown Park Hotel, half way up toward the church and ring road junction makes it well worth a look-see.

The same REA agent Mr Clarke also had this Hunter’s Moon up for sale back in 2013, when it was guided at €550,000, so it’s jumped up €90k or so in interim in its AMV, or about a 15% increase over the four years, less than the amount the residential market has since recovered.

When previously on the market, back around boomier times in 2003, it had a guide quoted then of €725,000, and that was about double what it reportedly made in the late 1990s (all in pre-Price Register days, admittedly, so figures may be approximate.)

That same time, c2003, one of the ‘classic’ early-mid 1900s houses on the Rochestown Road, Gortalough near the Douglas Fingerpost, sold for €4m, one of the biggest prices ever paid for a Cork suburban home

In less-exalted company, but still with a Rochestown Road setting, Hunter’s Moon has three of its five bedrooms en suite, under an asymmetric pitched roof.

The extensive floor area, part of its split level internally was added to in the 2000s by a single storey unit, used as treatment rooms, and now much of the back garden is finished in paving and hard surfaces, with outdoor BBQ.

VERDICT:

Well-set and very much a one-off, Hunter’s Moon is spacious but needs some works and extra spending before going back into domestic service.

Rochestown Road, Cork

Price: €639,000

Size: 390 sq m (4,200 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 5

Bathrooms: 4

BER: C3