First resale at Botanika is a €635k semi-d - and it's not half bad

Upmarket Blackrock Road scheme saw c30 sales from plans: now, No 14 is up for viewing, and buying

First reasle at Botanika, by Cleve Hill on Cork's Blackrock Road is listed with ERA Downey McCarthy who guide No 14 at €635,000

 

Botanika, Blackrock Road, Cork
€635,000
Size	144 sq m (1,550 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	A3

Promises made when Cork’s upmarket scheme Botanika launched on the city’s suburban Blackrock Road back in 2017 have been delivered on.

So says Michael Downey, the selling agent of the very first resale to come to the market in the scheme of 31 recent-builds, No 14 Botanika.

14 Botanika is a south-facing four-bed home by Cleve Hill

The bad news, for those with lots and lots of money to spend on a Blackrock area family home, is that No 14 isn’t one of the bigger, detacheds, which sold day one at prices up to €850,000.

The good news for those with ‘just’ lots of money is that No 14, a four-bed semi-d, is ‘relatively affordable’ for the location: it’s priced at €635,000.

But, ‘priced from’ might be a better descriptor, as it’s likely to have very active interest and, most likely, bidding above the guide as has become the norm in recent years, when good stock comes along in strong locations.

Sale agreed at €970,000 is No 33 Lindville Ballintemple 

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Case in point? No 33 Lindville, a 2,780 sq ft detached 500 metres from Botanika, came to market in June with a €875,000 AMV with agent Behan Irwin Gosling, and we speculated in these pages that it might tip the €1m mark. Turns out, it came close, going nearly €100k over the ‘relatively modest; guide, sale agreed at €970,0000.

Kitchen/diner

Back at this Botanika home, nearly two decades younger: the €635k guide is on a 1,550 sq ft home, south facing, with city/St Luke’s/Montenotte views to the back, over the south docks where renewal has already started, and public park provision well in hand by the Marina and Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

City views from the back of 14 Botanika 

Set between Ballintemple and Victoria Road, and an easy walk on the flat to the city, it’s in as-new nick, left part-furnished for its sale via agents ERA Downey McCarthy who have won the bragging rights to Botanika’s first resale. It won’t just be the other residents interested to see how it fares: there’s wider interest in what was one of Cork’s first ‘luxury’ schemes to come along post-market recovery.

ERA’s Michael Downey quotes developer’s Citidwell’s original sales boast when Botanika was first launched to a much-recovered residential market, in a flurry of marketing hyperbole and with the spelling ‘Botanika’ with a ‘k’’ deliberate to catch some sort of perceived zeitgeist.

Then, the spiel spoke of “an exclusive enclave of generous, detached and semi-detached luxury homes in a leafy, verdant and utterly private setting off the Blackrock Road. Sophisticated, spacious and refined, these family homes in the heart of sought-after Blackrock, sensitively designed and impeccably built are a rare and lasting legacy.”

Come 2021, with all spoken for and the Price Register showing the prices of 29 (at least one was kept by one of the Citidwell developers as his private family home), ERA’s Mr Downey adds “it’s fair to say that they did not disappoint in their delivery.”

Indeed, and from the brick and limestone entrance pillars in, Botanika with its dash and brick facades does indeed look the business, with some retained mature trees, and additional landscaping by Cunnane Stratton Reynolds, in a development set inside the Cleve Hill estate, with an easy walk of Cork City centre, and with the Marina and amenity walks also close to hand and foot.

About half of Botanika's 31 homes are detacheds

No 14’s vendors haven’t fallen out with Botanika, by the way: they’ve traded up within the development to one of the fifteen 2,380 sq ft detacheds.

While it’s not confirmed, it’s likely that the owners of No 14 have bought No 17, the very last of the detacheds to sell, and which is the latest listing on the Price Register, at €885,000.

That’s a tidy bit over the initial averages for this type, which ranged from €820,000 to €850,000, with one making €865,000 by 2019.

The vast majority of sales were only recorded post-2019, as the ambitious scheme on a very expensive and difficult site ran behind schedule finishing out.

Botanika included two three-bed semis and the balance then was four-bed semis of 1,550 sq ft which sold for under and over the €600k mark: No 14, the first to come for resale, shows in 2019 at €595,000.

Internally and upwards mobile at Botanika....

So, in effect, No 14’s owners are now making a €290,000 trade up move, from semi-d status to detached, and gaining an extra 830 sq ft, or 50% more space, along the way. For those who want to see more number crunching, that’s about €290 per square foot extra, a nice bit below the c €350 psf the detached originally sold at.

So what of No 14 itself? Well, it’s like brand new, vacated basically furnished at ground level only, so viewers and prospective buyers can easily imagine their own stamp and possessions on and in it.

Living room

In terms of layout, it’s quite standard of four-bed semis of the past decade, with rear kitchen/diner, full width, with front reception room with stove in a fire surround, while the bulk of heating comes from air-to-water sources and is underfloor at ground level with quality rads upstairs.

Ceiling heights are bit above standard allowing for 7’ doors, and there’s a utility and guest WC at ground, with four bedrooms above, main en suite plus family bathroom, with sanitary ware and tiling at an above spec standard too.

Other features include wiring for fibre broadband and cable TV Sky) and alarm, heritage-style sash windows, good sound/acoustic insulation, aluclad sliding rear patio door, highly secure front door, slate roof, and part brick façade, with easy keep wet dash on the balance.

The gardens have had some landscaping with fenced (not walled) back boundary, there’s a shed and rear patio, with off-street parking in front on a cobbled for several cars/SUVs.

VERDICT: There’ll be a raft of new home hunters curious to check out a finished Botanika home, as well as others who didn’t jump back a few years ago when most were sold off the plans, in one single phase, so there were no price increases in later releases.