Trading up: Ballinlough, Cork, €345,000

There’s a threaded network of parks, through-roads, and cul-de-sacs off Cork’s Ballinlough and Douglas Roads, and the occasional green too. 

Size: 91 sq m (980 sq ft) 

Bathrooms: 1 

Bedrooms: 3 

BER: E2

A lovely green park section is in view by South Lodge over the far end garden boundary wall at 14 Somerton Park.

No 14 is an April arrival for sale with Paul O’Shea of Sherry FitzGerald, who guides the tidy but dated 980 sq ft three-bed semi at €345,000.

It’s arriving as quite a few other semi-ds are turning over, reinventing themselves in this settled suburban hinterland with a full panoply of services, now heading into a new generation of family-rearing.

Even a cursory drive, walk, or cycle around the network of estates shows a range of options as to how they can be extended.

Some are budget-blowers, more than doubling the original houses in size, with buyers seeing value in an area within a walk of the city centre, schools, a super-deli at O’Driscolls, public parks, playing pitches, tennis court, and even squash courts, at the just-revamped Orchard Bar.

Mr O’Shea says the west-facing No 14 now probably needs modernising and adds “it has character, and a fantastic mature rear garden which is not overlooked with space to the side for extension, it’s a must-see.” He has open viewing on Tuesday at 5pm.

VERDICT: Roll on Somerton