Geraldine: Top 20 and pride of place

Tommy Barker unearths a little gem near Cork’s impressive docklands where development is really picking up pace to meet long-held expectations.

EVEN back 15 years ago, it seemed that long-established inner city areas around Cork’s Victoria Road and Albert Road were on the cusp of change, ready for the up and up, what with city expansion, and docklands development hopes.

Change did indeed come in one or two tranches, such as the Elysian which completed in 2008, while the landmark office development One Albert Quay followed suit two years ago; but it’s only now, after a crash and a wave of recovery, that it’s really picking up pace to meet long-held expectations.

Just a street or two away, yet more offices are being delivered at O’Callaghan Properties Navigation Square, with a second block now under construction, and all capable of hosting 3,000 jobs in this OCP scheme alone.

Elsewhere, very close by, the stretch from Albert Quay to Kennedy Quay is likely to ramp up yet further, in 2019, with an on-going site assembly in one case, and the likelihood of a significant site progressing to market also quite soon, rumoured to be for Origin.

There’s some talk of a new UCC business school coming this far or even further east and down river, as a docklands’ catalyst though there’s at least one other competing site yet wooing UCC, Trinity Quarter by South Terrace/Union Quay closer to the main college campus: it’s still all in the mix, apparently.

At the very opposite end of that scale, however, the owners, and now the vendors, of the diminutive 770 sq ft (72 sq m) mid terraced townhouse at 20 Geraldine Place, might be forgiven for thinking that they’ve heard all this sort of talk before.

They bought about 10 years ago, and did a fairly substantial refurb: more than that, they did a really tasty one. Anyone who appreciates quality craftsmanship should find much to be impressed at this reworked, century-plus old mid-terrace city pad.

Estate agent Jim Coughlan of James G Coughlan Associates started his first viewings here on Monday of this week, and he’s very taken with it from its first listing, for the young family who have traded up and out already.

He guides at €245,00 and enthuses “forget apartment living. From the moment you step inside the front door, this beautifully renovated and finished gem just gives you a sense of home, it’s exquisite, and represents one of the best examples of city living.” Indeed, it’s about the size of a good, two-bed apartment, with a very small back yard edged by high limestone walls, and on-street parking, all within a five minute walk of Cork city centre/City Hall. So Jim Coughlan’s comparison is apt.

The work done included opening up the main portion of the ground floor, and doing away with a hall, so that now the front door opens straight into a 20’ by 15’ open living/dining area, with new stair case, in white oak, with glass balusters held in steel clasps, and there’s understairs storage.

There’s also a solid oak floor, and a gas insert fireplace in a timber surround, while the window’s set-back to the street outside includes a neat storage slot with hardwood doors.

Out to the back, the kitchen has a part-vaulted cathedral ceiling, yet not too high, with twin Veluxes, the tile floored room’s about 14’ by 11’, with Shaker style timber units and some good appliances, with range cooker and extract, and over a dozen sockets, and a half dozen downlighters.

The landing above is oak floored, with a contemporary style shower room/bathroom, with raised sink/plinth, while the duo of bedrooms are each only about 10’ square, but gain extra airiness thanks to their ceilings sloping a bit further up into the attic level.

No 20 is an end-year market arrival, so its trump card (apart from location, and condition, of course) is the shortage of supply of walk-in order homes, in such a boomy, buzzy hinterland.

In fact, No 20 comes almost a year to the day after No 23 Geraldine Place went to market. No 23 close by was, once more, a wholly done-job, and well presented. It had been bought by do-er uppers about the same time as No 20, and who also traded up, in their case to a coastal home by Clonakilty.

No 23 Geraldine Place, pushed to about 850 sq ft,was a two/three-bed, had gone to market December 1, 2018, priced at €225,000 by Lawrence Sweeney of Savills. He said the activity was “fast and furious, we had 40 viewings and 12 offers.” It had gone ‘sale agreed by Jan 3, 2018, at €257,000, according to the Price Register, which showed its previous ‘raw state’ sale in 2010 at €139,000, when it needed all its work.

At that €257k level, it was head and shoulders the top selling of the 13 recorded sales on Geraldine Place, with the range prior to that from €73,000, at slump, to €176,000, in 2016.

What of the fortunes, now of Jim Coughlan’s listing at 20 Geraldine Place? This two-bed appears to be slightly smaller (770 sq ft, vs 850 sq ft), but at €245,000 is very much in the widely affordable ‘sweet spot’ of first-time buyers and urbanistas, with urban quarter transformation very much visible with cranes on the skyline, and many more big projects in the wings.

VERDICT: Location keeps getting better.

Geraldine Place, Cork city

€245,000

Size: 72 sq m (770 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 2

Bathrooms: 1

BER: D1