The Woods had a Whac-a-Mole route to market, but €490k No 10 comes up smiling
Open plan interior at 10 The Woods Glounthaune, priced at €490,000 by Hegarty Properties
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Glounthaune, Cork |
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€490,000 |
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Size |
190 sq m (2,030 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
4 |
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Bathrooms |
3 |
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BER |
A2 |
FAMILIES who bought into The Woods development in Cork’s Glounthaune tend to love the setting, the amenities, and the creature home comforts, says estate agent Adrianna Hegarty, having just listed No 10 as the latest phase of lockdown restrictions takes hold.
She managed a few initial viewings of the detached four-bed and — despite a list of requests for more, and building inquiries — the rest, for now, will have to be virtual ones until the virus’s curve is flattened once more, a sort of pandemic equivalent of the arcade game Whac-A-Mole.
Like a Whac-a-Mole too, The Woods has rolled with the punches of a property market, since first getting started in the mid-2000s, with a Dublin-based developer David Kidd (recently deceased) enthusiastically at the helm.
He bought the initial 12-acre site from Cork firm Murrayforde who had got the planning for 84 homes here, at a considerable cost. When it first launched in 2006 the very best homes were (even for those heady, heedless times) being floated at the €1m mark, about the same as some of the largest Cois Chuain homes in a near Glounthaune setting were making (see also pages 8 and 9).
By 2009, some (limited) reality was dawning, and prices dropped to €690,000, to still understandably sluggish sales.
The years rolled by and planning permission from the original application was extended and alterations applied for, and density increased.
The Price Register now records sales of homes here with number tipping over 110 new builds, and the largest price paid in the past decade was €482,000 in 2015 for No 8, and just four of the larger detacheds were for over €450,000, according to the Register.
The following year, 2017, No 10 sold for a recorded €470,250, and that’s the one that’s now back for re-sale for a family moving on to a one-off home in the vicinity.
They might be leaving The Woods, but their selling agent Ms Hegarty reckons she’ll having bidding/viewing inquires for home-owners already living here, but in smaller house or some of the semi-Ds.
She had a smaller one — No 56, a c1,550 sq ft four-bed — for sale in 2019, and it shows on the Price Register as making its exact asking price at the time, €385,000. (No 27, which featured here last year, also sold for its €395k asking price, via another agent, and deals are usually briskly done.)
Now, Adrianna Hegarty pins a €490,000 AMV to No 10, just about €30k over its sale when new back in 2017, and that’s for a 2,035 sq ft split-level/upside-down detached family home, with four bedrooms, and high-end kitchen, appliances, and finishes, in mint order too.
No 10’s set on a middle tier within The Woods, up above the 1970s-built Johnston Close, with a south aspect to the back and an enclosed rear garden with patio and shed (some gardens at The Woods are every tight, not so at No 10).
It’s entered at the upper/road level, to a carpeted hall/landing and comes with four bedrooms, several of them double aspect with Veluxes, with the main one en suite with Sliderobes. One of the other bedrooms also has sliding robes, whilst the main bathroom has a bath and separate shower.
Glass-balustered stairs (with overhead roof light) lead down to the main living level where there are two reception rooms, one with integrated wood-burning fireplace to back up the air-to-water main heat system (impressively, No 10’s A2 rated), with the stove fitted after the BER was assessed.
One bright reception room has large sliding doors to a laid sandstone patio, and there’s also a playroom/study, plus utility and guest WC.
The main heart of the home is the kitchen with fitted units and island by the company Leicht, topped with white quartz, and appliances include a Neff hob with Siemens extractor, integrated Neff fridge/freezer, Siemens ovens, etc. Much of the lower-level flooring is the Swiss brand Krono, with attractive hardwood doors.
Ms Hegarty says The Woods location is strong, given a setting near Glounthaune's commuter train station on the Midleton and Cobh lines “while also being only a moments' drive from the Cork-Waterford N25,” with the city beyond, either via Tivoli, or the Jack Lynch Tunnel where Dunkathel junction upgrade works are inching forward to relieve peak-time traffic snarls.
Traditionally, Glounthaune has had an extra appeal to buyers locating to Cork in earlier, pre-tunnel, decades with a very good selection of large detached homes dotted along the shouldering, sunny south-facing hillside with views over the delta-like expanses of the Lee estuary and wildfowl sanctuaries, with national school, church, pub, services, and the acclaimed Fitzpatrick's shop as a community hub and meeting point.
VERDICT: A true walk-in job, with quality interiors, in a popular and now well-established and well-regarded commutable residential development just east of Cork City.
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