Comeragh as you are, or extend? Modern luxuries with original features at €695k Model Farm Road home

Full planning in place to add 1,000 sq ft to 1,770 sq ft Comeragh

Comeragh is a twice-upgraded mid-1900s four-bed detached home of 1,770sq ft, which has been 'substantially upgraded in recent years'. Pictures: John Roche

Tue, 08 Jun, 2021 - 00:00

Tommy Barker

Laburnum Park, Model Farm Road
€695,000
Size	164 sq m (1,770 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	2
BER	B3

The four-bed detached home, built in the mid-1900s, was put up for sale in July 2020, with a €725,000 AMV quoted by agents Sherry FitzGerald for trade-up vendors.

However, the owner's moving-on plans took longer than expected, it appears, so the top location western suburban home was withdrawn from sale.

Things fell back into place for the occupants of the past five years, and now the chance to buy has come along again, with a formal €695,000 guide price. Given its overall condition, and the dearth of trade-up stock in good order in most of Cork’s older suburbs right now, it’s likely to tip over the €700k in any case, and may well end up closer to its 2020 price hope than its latest listing suggests.

Comeragh is a twice-upgraded mid-1900s detached home of 1,770sq ft, just off the Model Farm Road, with one of its four bedrooms at ground level by a guest WC/shower room. Three more bedrooms are on the first floor, plus an improved main bathroom.

Its owner bought in 2016, paying a recorded €635,000, well above its €550k AMV, and raised the bar in terms of finishes. They added attractive sliding sash-style windows, improved the gardens and the decor, and added a stove. They also took out a first-floor small en suite and got planning for a wrap-around two-storey extension to add more first-floor bedroom space and en suites.

That’s an option for Comeragh’s next occupants to act on, should they wish to gain the additional c1,000sq ft for which planning was secured.

In fact, this home was enlarged previously, between 2009 and 2016, gaining an extra 250sq ft at that time.

Inside at ground level, it’s got an oak-floored hall, a living room linked via sliding pocket doors to the open plan kitchen/dining/living area with a new gas stove, plus a utility room, the fourth bedroom and a convenient downstairs shower room.

The auctioneer says it has already been “substantially upgraded in recent years and, as a result, boasts all the luxuries and conveniences of a modern home whilst still retaining some of the charming original features, such as ornate cast-iron fireplaces and picture rails.”

New owners can act on the architect’s plans for a c 1,000sq ft wrap-around add-on, with double aspect en suite master bedroom, or may be able just to extend at first-floor level over an existing ground-floor plan for a lower budget "personal stamp”.

The Property Price Register also records the sale in 2018 of Sharonvale, Laburnum Drive, as well as 58 sales in the past decade on and off Cork’s Model Farm Road for over €600,000.

However, that narrows down to 38 sales along its length for more than €700,000.

New O'Flynn Group builds at Steeplewoods at the western end of the Model Farm Road

The O’Flynn Group’s new homes development Steeplewoods, at the western end, accounts for four of those €700k+ sales, with the selling price of No 3 Steeplewoods recently corrected to €820,000 inc Vat. It had incorrectly appeared on www.PropertyPriceRegister.com at €931,000, and was then recently reported on in error at that higher sum.

VERDICT: Laburnum set to come up smelling of roses?