Executive-level wallet required for €890k model home on Model Farm Road 

No 2 Hayfield has professional input inside and out and nothing has been left to chance

Hayfield Model Farm Road

Model Farm Road, Cork
€890,000
Size	232 sq m (2,500 sq ft) Attic 300 sq ft
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	3
BER	Pending

A BUMPER crop of new homes on Model Farm Road has done nothing to dampen prices. Even more mature homes like those in Hayfield sell like hot cakes.

It all points to a location carrying a certain cachet, especially among professionals looking for a home that’s a cut above the rest. A lot of the houses on Model Farm Road are what auctioneers dub “executive level” and for sure it takes an executive-level wallet to acquire one. 

The Property Price Register shows buyers are prepared to pay big for the opportunity to live in this quasi-rural location, still just a short hop from the city centre.

At Steeplewoods in nearby Carrigrohane, developed by the O’Flynn Group, a house sold in January for more than €800,000.

In Rosefields, a development on the site of the old Nangles Nurseries that launched in autumn 2017, one home fetched more than €850,000 in 2019, while in Hilton, an older Model Farm Road development much favoured by the professional classes, the most recent sale recorded on the PPR is of a house called Cleggan, which featured in these pages, and sold in 2019 for almost €800,000. Armidale, also in Hilton, sold in 2017 for €975,000.

With these kinds of prices, it’s not surprising that Model Farm Road has been dubbed a “property hotspot”, with developers keen to get in on the action.

The hive of residential development activity on this western artery in recent years does not extend to Hayfield, which is around a bit longer. It launched in the early noughties and has the honour of holding the record for the first Cork suburban location where a developer (Ruden Homes) paid €1m per acre, for the chance to build detached, upmarket homes in a former barley field off Church Hill, also by the old Nangles Nurseries.

The red-brick Hayfield scheme, done to a design by Hogan Architecture, launched in 2003 with starting prices of just under €500,000 for four beds and around €770,000 for five beds but within three years, one home sold for a whopping €1.2m. While a chastened market post-2008 showed prices had dipped, one five bed still managed to make €920,000 in 2010. Since then, the highest price achieved was €775,000 in 2012, while the most recent sale, four-bed No 13, was for €650,000.

It’s against this strong sales backdrop that No 2 Hayfield comes to market and it’s already attracting local, national and international interest, according to selling agent Norma Healy of Sherry FitzGerald.

Hayfield Model Farm Road

“Any decent, good quality home in this area is being snapped up,” she says, adding that the demand for Model Farm Road homes will always ensure strong prices.

“What’s more, Hayfield homes rarely come to market and No 2 is probably one of the best quality homes in the area right now,” Ms Healy says.

For sure No 2 is a turnkey prospect and enjoyed the benefit of professional input indoors from Hogan and Pay interior designers. It also had professional input outdoors - the rear garden has the distinction of being designed by the late gardener and artist Brian Cross.

Brian Cross-designed garden

Hayfield Model Farm Road

 Mr Cross, gardening since the ripe old age of eight, turned his own private garden in Lakemount, Glounthaune, into an award-winning oasis. He did a very fine job at No 2 as well, and the upshot is a mixture of generous patio, interspersed with gravel areas, and some low-maintenance lawn, laid out in a variety of contrasting shapes, bounded by a gorgeous stone seat-level wall, with raised beds and plenty of thoughtfully chosen trees and shrubs to provide natural screening. The icing on the cake is that the garden is south facing and seating areas are designed to make the most of its orientation.

Indoors is gleaming and well-proportioned and notable features include extra high ceilings, zoned underfloor heating downstairs, a zoned speaker system, junckers beech Sylva red floors on the ground floor and a converted attic, currently used as a gym.

Entrance hall

Step down family room

Gym in the attic

The centrepiece of the house is the open plan kitchen/dining area and step down to a dual aspect family room where there’s access to the rear patio, also accessible from the dining area. The kitchen is hand painted by Glenline kitchens, with an Iroka countertop on the island.

Downstairs also has a guest WC and utility and that all important extra room for remote working/study/playroom, as well as a generous living room.

Accommodation overhead includes five nice sized bedrooms, of which the main is ensuite with a walk-in wardrobe. 

There’s also a family bathroom. Access to the 300 sq ft attic is via Stira.

Ms Healy says No 2 is an “incredibly versatile house” ideal for a family, as it has been for its current owners, who have lived there for 15 years.

It's also in a great location, she says, near the South Ring road network, Bishopstown, Ballincollig and Wilton, and just a short stroll from the Lee Fields.

“This truly is a fantastic opportunity to acquire a substantial, detached family home in one of Cork’s most sought-after residential locations,” Ms Healy says.

Verdict: A model home in a model location. Except high-flyer bidding.