Family home beside Páirc Ui Chaoimh is just the ticket at €1m

On the doorstep of Páirc Ui Chaoimh, this early 1900s family home is on Cork city’s Ardfoyle Crescent, with views of the new stadium over its mature back boundaries

Glenbower Ardfoyle Crescent

 

Ballintemple, Cork City
€985,000
Size	153 sq m (1,650 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	D2

You could not have gotten with an asses’ roar of red-pillared Glenbower on several occasions this summer– it’s right on the doorstep of Páirc Ui Chaoimh, where the likes of Elton John, and Ed Sheehan played to tens of thousands of fans at the GAA stadium.

This early 1900s family home is on Cork city’s Ardfoyle Crescent, in the heart of Ballintemple, with views to the new stadium over its mature back boundaries, and more than close enough to hear large-scale gigs, or thrilling match moments.

If the ‘Greater Blackrock’ location, and the property’s looks have not already earned Glenbower the title, ‘coveted’, a line in the sales brochure will surely clinch the deal for for better-off home hunters in Cork: “... ideally suited to a purchaser looking for something ready for immediate occupation.”

Elton John played to thousands of concert-goers in Páirc Uí Chaoimh earlier this summer.

So says estate agent Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald of the superbly-located, and charmingly presented, four-bed home on the outer circle of winsome Ardfoyle Crescent.

As we here noted three years ago, when near-neighbour, Glenlara, came for sale, “there’s hardly a row of homes in Cork city’s older southside suburbs with as much ‘kerb appeal’ as those on one side of Ardfoyle Crescent: even their entrance pillars set quite a tone of grandeur, in red brick and crowned with large terracotta globes.”

Glenlara had a 2019 AMV of €545,000, and sold by 2020 for a recorded €564,000, and was a c 1,350 sq ft three-bed semi-d home, on prized gardens, and requiring internal updating.

In contrast, Glenbower is a larger, c 1,650 sq ft four- bed detached home, in a very similar setting, also sporting those stand-out garden gate pillars.

Despite its age, the best part of a century, built as the Victorian era became the Edwardian, it doesn’t need updating.

That was all done in 2019, in a manner sympathetic to the sympathy to the house’s heritage, and has updated bathrooms, modern gloss kitchen in pale grey, renewed floors, some in herringbone style, double glazing, gas central heating, updated lighting and a respectable D2 BER.

Ms O’Mahony says Glenbower is “a beautifully presented four-bedroom detached residence, with a fresh, modern tastefully presented interior positioned in a small niche development located off the prestigious Blackrock Road,” and guides it at a tad under the €1m mark, at €985,000.

That’s well ahead of several other Ardfoyle Crescent resales in recent times, which spanned €490,000 to €564,000, but a more careful perusal of the Price Register throws up the €745,000 paid back in 2016 for Coolscart, a 1,600 sq ft double-fronted detached, needing lots of work at that time.

Smart inside and out, and with a distinctive slight curve to its roof ridges, one of Glenbower’s four bedrooms is at ground level, next to a guest WC with shower. It has a tiled floor, and wall of bookshelves, and may be used by next owners as a home office.

There’s also a main living room with deep bay window facing south and fireplace, a dining room with more ornate fireplace and another reception room further back, off the kitchen with corner window overlooking the back garden, and it also has a fireplace. Also linked to the kitchen is a casual dining room, with double doors/French doors, to the back patio and garden.

There’s a utility and ground level shower room (Glenbower has a long, single storey side wing masked behind a garage door, with Veluxes above.) and the entry hall on the far side has a very attractive terrazzo floor with the two-tone pattern aping the shape of the room and even a curve in the stairs’ bottom step, while up those stairs are three bedrooms, and main refreshed family bathroom, with shower over the bath.

VERDICT: Just the ticket; albeit at circa €1m, a big ticket item.