Trading up: Best selection of homes in Cork city and county

Church Road, Blackrock, Cork €450,000

Back along during the slump, when people felt unable to trade up from their existing homes, the building economy — such as it was — was supported by the investment families made in staying put, and extending.

Now, despite new Central Bank lending restrictions impacting on the trade-up market, there’s evidence of trading movement getting on with things. And, as a result, there’s an increasing number of already-extended and renovated houses coming to the resale market.

Estate agent Kevin Barry says he’s been lucky in recent months getting a clutch of already done-up houses to sell. He says they’re going down a treat with couples and families who just can’t face the prospect of engaging tradespeople themselves.

Case in point is No 5 Sylvan Bank, one of under a dozen houses in this nice, dog-leg cul de sac off the Skehard Road end of Church Road, with a ‘halo effect’ of a Blackrock hinterland to its address.

It’s a four-bed semi-d of over 1,400 sq ft, thanks to an apex-roofed single-storey add-on, for a south-facing new kitchen/dining open plan family area to the rear.

One of its four bedrooms is en-suite, and there’s planning for an attic extension for further bedroom use.

VERDICT: Simple extension raises the bar.

Montenotte, Cork €495,000

Pitched just under the €500k mark on its market launch is the four-bed, 1,500 sq ft detached family home at 33, Ard na Laoi.

The development, now a few decades old and done back in the day by McInerneys as one of their several forays into Cork’s elevated Montenotte suburb, is more than well established at this stage, and in the very recent past has had the bonus of the amenities of the massively-upgraded Montenotte Hotel right on its doorstep.

That on-high hotel and its remarkable landscaped gardens captures views quite unlike any others: you just have to know Cork’s past as a maritime city when up on its terraces, and also can witness its future docklands prospects from here.

Estate agent Lawrence Sweeney of Savills is now selling 33 Ard na Laoi, and he calculates that it is just 1.2km from the city centre. That distance is possibly back to Summerhill north/MacCurtain Street, and is a good downhill walk, or a five-minute drive, he adds.

No 33 is an original well-kept four-bed home, in at the very top end of Ard na Laoi, and it’s south-facing with three reception rooms off a re-tiled floor. Its kitchen has been updated, and there’s a sort of four-square plan to the layout, with central kitchen. One of its four bedrooms is en-suite.

VERDICT: Broad trade-up appeal.

Little Island, Cork €240,000

For the money, there’s a good deal of rooms on offer at 54 Castlewood, in the heart of Cork’s traditional Little Island heartland’s mix of employment parks, retail offers, community base — and, even Cork Golf Club is just to the south.

A four-bed semi-d, with en suite master bedroom and guest WC all managing to fit into an overall floor area of 1,150 sq ft, No 54 Castlewood is guided at €240,000 by selling agent Kevin O’Connell.

A native of the east-of-city area, and now back working in the auctioneering business with agency Dominic Daly & Co, Mr O’Connell first listed the affordable Little Island buy back in June. It was sale agreed, but hit a hiccough, and now he has it back on his books this autumn, at the same price guide.

Dash-faced No 54 has a mix of maple and walnut floored rooms, with a tiled kitchen, front reception with fireplace, and rear kitchen/diner, with fenced in rear garden, plus timber shed, while there’s off-street parking in front.

VERDICT: The Irish Examiner yesterday ran a special 48-paged supplement yesterday, extolling the range of amenities on Little Island’s doorstep, and the good news was, the range of measures promised to ease the greater area’s peak times traffic congestion, in conjunction with the €100m Dunkettle interchange reordering.

Cork City, €385,000

Get it first, and get in first, that’s the thing, when it comes to the superbly located 45 Marina Park.

Up for sale this month, on the edge of Cork city and the very start of the Blackrock Road, off the Victoria Road, is this mid 1900s three-bed semi-d, with more than location on its side — it also has a very long side garden, prime for an innovative extension reaching for southerly light, along with a detached garage at a far extremity.

The ‘standard issue’ 1,060 sq ft home, with bonus value site, is guided at €385,000, by estate agent John Barry of Frank V Murphy & Co and he says the early attention is from viewers looking to relocate to Cork’s inner suburbs.

“Given the location, this could be ‘a house for life,’” Mr Barry observes, and says while it’s quite original so far in layout, the condition is good, with windows, front door and central heating upgraded about eight years ago “so new owners could move in and live there for a while before making bigger alterations.”

West facing No 45 is in at the back of cul-de-sac Marina Park, where eight sales have occurred since 2015, mostly in the mid €300,000s for older three-bed, while a four-bed recently made €410,00, and a detached out on the Victoria Road made €500,000, since extended.

VERDICT: Major new developments in train or are coming along on ‘old’ Marina Park’s doorstep, from the south and east docks to the new public park at the old Showgrounds, to be called Marina Park. Get in first.