First €1m+ new homes development in Cork city since Celtic Tiger era - and it's a seller

Just one house, the smaller type,  is left to sell publicly at Model Farm Road's long-anticipated Vailima development, offered with a builder's finish at €1.1m

Model Farm Road, Cork City
€1.1 million
Size	236 sq m (2,540 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	4
BER	A2

ONE chance, just once chance only. And, it’s sort of a Chance in a Million at least, priced at €1.1 million.

Listed this week at that €1.1m AMV, and certain to make it or more, is No 5 Vailima, one of seven homes just winding up construction on Cork city’s Model Farm Road.

Vailima is set just west of Dennehy's Cross. No 5 is centre of picture

It’s the only one going to the open market as the rest are all taken, one is just occupied, and it’s the first of Cork City’s new homes offered at or over the €1 million mark. Well, that’s at least since the tail-end days of the Celtic Tiger, when Earls Well houses in Waterfall went up for sale in 2009 at €1m+prices... but, none of them sold at that, as the Irish property market had by then entered its price plummeting tail-spin.

Vailima enters the very top end of Cork’s ‘new homes’ market, joining older select schemes where existing modern homes in developments can resell for over €1 million. It joins the ranks of Eyrecourt in Rochestown, Lindville in Blackrock, Botanika on the Blackrock Road, as well as Rosefield and Court Cairn on different ends of the Model Farm Road.

Now, there’s this new kid on the block, in a cracking setting on the Model Farm Road, at the city end.

Kingscourt brick finish goes all the way to the top

5 Vailima is the only home here being offered publicly: the rest are all accounted for at as-yet undisclosed prices 

The Vailima development of seven detached, high-end homes was built on the grounds of a period-era, one-off home of the same name which sold in 2016 for €1.35 million to developers Rockforest Homes. It got resold a few years later, for c €1.75m, with planning secured for the seven houses, ranging in size from c 2,600 sq ft to over 3,600 sq ft.

Purchaser was engineer and developer Killian Kelly of the Killian Kelly Group, developing here under the company KACE (Kelly & Associates Consulting Engineers) and it has taken him two year to complete this ambitious project.

Mr Kelly says he got design and finish ideas for these Kingscourt redbrick detacheds from an upmarket development in Hainault in Dublin’s Foxrock, and builders for this Cork scheme on the Model Farm Road are South Coast Homes, based near Timoleague.

He indicates it’s the first of several KACE developments to complete, and he has several other projects lined up in the wings, including one close to Vailima.

The site costs equate to about €250,000 per stand, and the larger homes appear to bookend the niche development. Sale prices for five sold houses (the developer has kept the end one at the site’s wooded end for his family) aren’t as yet disclosed and haven’t appeared on the Price Register. Buyers are a mix, it appears, of relocaters to Cork, locals trading up and one person trading down from a city period home.

Builder's finish in kitchen/diner 

Estate agent selling No 5 Vailima is Johnny O’Flynn of Sherry FitzGerald, who says he has a number of advance inquiries before ever going to the open market. He he describes the small, settled suburban scheme as highly impressive, in a cast-iron, proven location, a few minutes’ walk from Dennehys Cross, and within a walk of UCC, MTU, the Bon Secours, the CUH/CMUH, as well as close to shops, schools and all other services and amenities.

Medics might be expected to be to the fore, but not necessarily so, and he and his Sherry FitzGerald colleague Sheila O’Flynn report very strong active interest in a €1.45m modern home offer, Ardbeg, just of the Model Farm Road which came to market just over a month ago.

Ardbeg has a €1.45m AMV with Sherry FitzGerald

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 The Price Register shows nine Model Farm Road sales in excess of €1m since 2010, but at least two of these were for development sites, such as Vailima’s 2016 appearance there at €1.35m.

Make yourself at dome: View from Vailima is of the dome at the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Dennehys Cross

 Although not the largest of the types within the ‘all-new’ Vailima, No 5 nonetheless has almost 2,600 sq ft within, over three levels, with an A2 BER, and finishes include excellent brick work (especially top and tailing the chimneys which serves as a flue for wood-burning stoves in the bay-windowed drawing room), as well as granite sills, granite rear patio with a south-west aspect, and even a granite plinth skirting the property at ground level.

Hardwood staircase connects all three levels

At the front, the seven detached houses all face the copper dome of the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Dennehys Cross.

To the rear is an attractive wet dash or harling finish.

Rear view of No 5 with dash finish behind

Other features tipping the period home look in these modern builds include sliding sash windows, ceiling plasterwork and mahogany staircases, along with A2 BER energy efficient services such as air to water heating provided underfloor on ground and first floors, heat recover ventilation (HRV), and an electric feature fire in the kitchen/diner, plus wood-burning stove in the main, front reception room.

Above No 5 has five double bedrooms, with main one to the rear with large dressing room/nursery/option extra bedroom, plus en suite; two others at the mid-level share an en suite in a Jack & Jill layout, while the top floor has two bedrooms/one an optional home office, plus bathroom.

The No 5 is being sold with what’s described as a builder’s finish, so new owners will get to chose (and, separately pay for) final finishes such as kitchen supplier/worktops/appliances. flooring, tiling, paneling and colours, so this could add a further €100k+ to the finished ‘home for life’ price.

View along the Model Farm Road towards Cork city, showing €1.45m Ardbeg at bottom and Vailima's €1m+ new-builds closer to Dennehys Cross

VERDICT: A buyer might ‘only’ be getting one of the smaller detacheds for their €1.1m+, but it will be a high-spec, A2-rated ace home in a Triple A-rated Cork location.