Roomy Blackrock homes with price tag to answer your prayers

Convent Garden offers niche five-bed homes with an eye-catching sales price

IE PROPERTY TOMMY BARKER 01/09/2020.

THERE’S one way in particular that the €500,000 townhouses in Cork’s Convent Garden can be described as aimed up the upwardly mobile — they’re tall, very tall.

They have their pretty generous (c 2,200 sq ft) accommodation spread over three levels and, inside, have ceiling heights notably above standard, at about 10’ per floor. The internal loftiness of these Blackrock Villas niche homes just south of the historic former Ursuline Convent,  17 in all in two long runs, is one of the first things you notice when crossing the threshold of the show unit at No 2.

The first eight go on release next weekend with agents Paul Hannon and Chris Courtney of Sherry FitzGerald New Homes, with four variations on floor plans, with first-floor drawing rooms that are 20’ wide across the front, and optional first or second floor en-suite master bedrooms. Prices for the A3 BER-standard townhouses go from €495,000, for mid-terraces up  to €520,000 for end ones, some with side/bay windows and side access.

Design of these all-brick exterior builds was by O’Mahony Pike architects who first laid out the overall Eden scheme incorporating many hundreds of units, on the leafy Ursuline Convent grounds between Blackrock village and Skehard Road, back in the mid-2000s.

Critically for developers the plc Glenveagh Homes, who acquired the balance of the Eden site via Nama over two years ago, Convent Garden will have direct access to Blackrock along the old convent avenue. This will matter just as much to buyers, given the attractions of a ‘Blackrock’ address and link, as a previous section of Blackrock Villas homes had price differences of as much as €30,000 per unit, depending on whether access was via Skehard Road, or ‘the village.’ 

The last detacheds there, of c 1,700 sq ft, sold at €550,000/€570,000, very much ‘Blackrock’ prices,and Sherry FitzGerald report good preliminary interest in this latest offer, Convent Garden, especially from better-off First Time buyers and even some investor interest, given likely rental income of well over €2,000 a month.

If of sufficient means, First Time buyers here will get €30,000 off the €495,000 purchase price and so at €4650,000 “they are getting a lot of brand new, 2,200 sq ft five-bed Blackrock homes for €465,000", says Sherry Fitz's Paul Hannon.

They’re very much townhouse in style, with small back gardens only.

In marked contrast, to the north/front, the two runs of 17 townhouses (nine in one, including the unfurnished show unit at No 2) overlook the mature tree boundary of the Ursuline Convent.

Each unit has off-street parking for two cars, and have fitted Kube kitchens, built-ins in four of the five bedrooms, finished bathrooms, and air to water heating.

Final floor finishes are left to buyers to chose and get fitted.

VERDICT: You won’t get a period five-bed Blackrock home for a half a million….

Blackrock, Cork City 

€495,000-€520,000 

Size: 205 sq m (2,200 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 5 

Bathrooms: 4 BER: A3