Trading Up: A selection of trading up homes in Cork city and county

We scan a selection of trading up homes in city and county.

Lee Road, Cork

• €330,000
• Size: 83sq m (900sq ft)
• Bathrooms: 1
• Bedrooms: 3
• BER: G

At this stage, and at about 70 years of age, Mount Carmel is sort of out on its own — it’s one of the few remaining ‘untouched’ bungalows on a prized stretch of property on the Lee Road.

Neighbours east and west and pretty much right along this section of greenbelt, south facing overlooking the Lee Fields and the river, have gone for big extensions, knock-downs and build back ups.

Not so, yet at least, at Mount Carmel, called after a place of Biblical significance in what’s now northern Israel.

A compact, three bed bungalow of c 900 sq ft, it’s for sale with agent Lawrence Sweeney of Savills Cork carrying a €330,000 price tag, cheap enough for a house in this area, not so cheap for what might be a site.

But, it’s nearly on an acre, stretching back deep and up in the hill behind, and is at the bottom/road end of the quite narrow plot.

The setting, aspect and proximity to the city (about 4kms to the east) are already drawing viewing interest, and starting dreams of what just might be possible (might planners allow a new build a little back up on this site?)

VERDICT: Cork’s Holy Land? A little cracker, full of promise, on the green fringes of the city, near colleges, hospitals, and other major employers at Ballincollig and Hollyhill.

Victoria Road, Cork

• €475,000 asking
• Size: 172 sq m (1,850 sq ft)
• Bathrooms: 2
• Bedrooms: 4
• BER: C3

Offers have come in, fast and furious, on 4 Park Villas, and why not? It’s a Victorian home, in rude good health after a full internal makeover, is a 10-minute walk from Cork city centre, and a five-minute trot from the city quays, where new office developments are also coming on stream, with thousands of jobs in the wings.

Park Villas is a terraced stretch on Victoria Road before the start of the Blackrock Road, and it faces the green lung of Kennedy Park. No 4, a mid-terraced four-bed with some 1,850 sq ft within, ticks so many boxes: it has a top inner suburban location, great aspect, south west to the back, with off-street parking and electric gates, and is in walk-in condition.

Estate agent Suzanne Tyrrell of Cohalan Downing guided at €475,000, and by week’s end bidders pushed it well beyond that, tipping €600k. The Price Register doesn’t show any comparable sales with a Victoria Road address going back to 2010.

Ms Tyrrell says it is in very good overall condition, with mostly sash windows, working shutters, high ceilings with plasterwork, some original fireplaces (including in a couple of bedrooms, albeit shut up) and has gas central heating, a modern kitchen, and upgraded bathrooms, including a wet-room/shower at ground level. It’s got three reception rooms, with the option to open a partitioned one up for a larger drawing room.

VERDICT: Reaching €600k? Victoria Road’s time in the sun has returned.

Friars’ Walk, Cork city

• €270,000
• Size: 86sq m (926sq ft)
• Bathrooms: 2
• Bedrooms: 3
• BER: C2

Set right back into the far end of the 1980s inner south city suburban development Deerpark is No 166, a mid terraced threebed, for sale with a €270,000 tag via agent Mark Rose of Rose Property Services.

The development, done by O’Brien and O’Flynn, has always been popular with buyers, both private families and investors alike because of its quiet location, off Friars Walk, near Nuns Walk, and within a easy walk of the city centre for any lay residents too.

There have been nearly 60 resales here in the past eight years, according to the Price Register, ranging from under €200,000, to €430,000 at the start of this year for No 60, and house types span a range of three- and four-beds, terraced and semi-d’s.

No 166 is a straightforward three-bed, with interconnecting ground floor reception rooms, one with a fireplace (a new gas boiler was fitted a few years back), with kitchen/ breakfast room to the back, with a guest WC, an upstairs are two double bedrooms and a single, plus a main family bathroom.

It has off street parking and an easy-keep gravelled and shrubbed back garden.

VERDICT: Location’s very convenient with a choice of bus routes, and walking distance to UCC and the city centre, so may have a wide buyer appeal.

Blackpool, Cork

• €450,000
• Size: 278 sqm (3,000 sq ft)
• Bathrooms: 9
• Bedrooms: 9
• BER: C2

There are options galore, thanks to a development out the back of 7 Dublin Street, in the very heart of Cork city’s Blackpool.

A former B&B, the street-fronting property has five bedrooms, but has a second, associated and marginally attached four-bed house to the back, reached via an arch.

Surprisingly, there’s also off-street parking past the arch for several cars, plus a very good landscaped and tiered back garden.

Right on the doorstep is a shopping centre with Dunnes, a retail park with Woodies, a multi-screen cinema, restaurants and bars, and the city centre is walk away, on the flat, plus there’s a bus stop by the door.

Previously O’Dwyer’s B&B, No 7 Dublin Street is fresh to market with a price guide of €450,000 via estate agent Trevor O’Sullivan of Coldwell Banker, who says there’s planning permission to split the overall property into two.

This opens the way for a family or other buyer profile to get two adjacent houses, either for generations or siblings to live side-by-side, or to live in one and rent the other, and it might also suit an institutional-type buyer, perhaps for assisted living.

There are 3,000 sq ft all-in, in very good condition, and nine bedrooms and nine bathrooms in all, with day use rooms also.

At present the two buildings are linked by a kitchen, but there is planning permission to divide, and conquer.

VERDICT: Services on the doorstep.