House of the week: Majestic oaks take time to mature and make their impact

SLOW-growing, but majestic oaks take time to mature and make their impact. And, along Cork’s Boreenmanna Road, a development called The Oaks has so far gone under most locals’ radars, despite now being rooted to the spot for the past 13 years.

Sat, 29 Sep, 2018 - 01:01

Slow-growing, but majestic oaks take time to mature and make their impact. And, along Cork’s Boreenmanna Road, a development called The Oaks has so far gone under most locals’ radars, despite now being rooted to the spot for the past 13 years, writes Tommy Barker

A niche development of 13 good-sized detached houses, The Oaks was privately developed by Pat Hegarty, scion of the PJ Hegarty & Co building and contracting firm who did private schemes and investments in Cork and Limerick in previous decades: he was also behind the development of two adjoining blocks of apartments by The Oaks, around the same time — the boom years, c 2005.

Since then, both neighbouring schemes have made themselves well at home in this inner-suburban location, handily within a walk of the city centre and almost directly facing a public park. Surprisingly, it appears that not a single house sale at The Oaks is yet recorded. Until now?

Fresh to the September market is No 11 The Oaks, on the left on the way into the small development, and so has a west/south west-aspected back garden, into which its owners have placed a 23’ long, and 12’ wide single storey family room extension. This c 270 sq ft add-on brings this three-storey house’s total floor area up to 2,150 sq ft.

No 11 is listed with agent Michael O’Donovan of Savills, carrying a €695,000 AMV and appears in excellent order, from top to bottom, with a good and practical floor layout.

Two of its five bedrooms are up top, served by a shower room. The middle level houses three bedrooms, with an en suite master bedroom with dressing room to the back, and one of the two to the front is a double, the other’s a single.

It’s at ground level where No 11 shines most, though, with an open and airy run of rooms.

The entry point is to the right of a bay-windowed front reception room, with a cherry wood floored hall leading to that front living room, with coved ceilings, matching cherry wood floor and which now has a wood burning stove fitted, in a chimney-piece also piped for gas.

From here, part-glazed double doors go to a full-width (26’ by 12’) dining room/kitchen, with pale porcelain tiled floor, and white painted units, with contrasting black granite worktops and island.

Yet another set of double doors goes on further, to the family room extension from the dining side, and this newish space overlooks the walled-in back garden, with paved patio and small patch of lawn, with large picture windows and double doors for outdoor access in another section.

Also overlooking the back garden is the kitchen sink window: might some new owners want to open further garden access to the west from here also?

The long family room has a vaulted cathedral style ceiling (with two exposed wood beams) adding to the airiness, and the pitched roof has two Veluxes, but they face north, not south as may have been expected.

Savills Michael O’Donovan says the five-bed detached home is in excellent order, with zoned gas heating (with eco-savvy Hive controls), alarm, cobbled front garden and landscaping designed for easy maintenance.

The Oaks is set opposite Ballinlough Community Park and tennis club; Crab Lane NS is nearby, as are other primary schools and Ashton for second level, and there’s excellent bus connectivity to the city and out to Mahon’s office parks and more.

It’s pitched pretty firmly by Savills at the trade-up end of the market, currently showing some signs of sluggishness in the southern capital (thanks to Brexit worries allied to Central Bank lending restrictions?) but the area has had some pretty decent resales of late, including the winsome, early 1900s Rathcoola, sold for €950,000 earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the market in Cork’s southside awaits the long-anticipated launch of the brand new home development Aylesbury, on the old Eir site next to Cork Constitution rugby grounds a mile or so from The Oaks. It’s due a launch with the next few weeks, also via Savills who have over 500 names and inquiries registered, and the bigger buys there are likely to be priced well into the €700k-plus bracket. VERDICT: The Oaks is there for the long haul.