Quick return to market for this €449,000 semi-detached home 

The four-bed semi-detached home has got an asking of price €100,000, or 28%, more than what it first sold for as a new build in 2019.

Photo: Niamh Whitty/www.pictureitsold.ie

Crawford Gate, Blackrock/Mahon, Cork
€449,000
Size	120 sq m (1,284 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	A3

A development aimed at first-time buyers three years ago, with what were billed as ‘sweet-spot’ prices from €325,000 to €365,000, has seen one of the first resale offers come to market.

But, now, in 2022 the four-bed semi-d has got an asking of price €100,000, or 28%, more than the same house sold for new in 2019.

Listed with a €449,000 AMV is 1 Lakelands Gardens in the sold-out Crawford gate scheme of 65 homes in Cork’s Skehard/Blackrock/Mahon hinterland in ‘as new’ condition — “it’s the closest thing I’ve seen to a formal showhouse,” says auctioneer Jeremy Murphy, who’s acting for a Cork couple already set to trade up from their 1,284 sq ft home.

The Price Register shows 60 listings at Crawford Gate, including several multiples, and No 1 shows at €349,500 as a 2019 deal, recorded in February 2020, making some €20,000 over the original sale prices of three-bed semis there as a larger and four-bed home.

Today, at the €449,000 AMV, it shows just how strong the market has been since — and how much harder it is for first-time buyers to afford to buy as the purchasing goalposts have moved steadily out of reach for so many.

If the same 28% rise in values is applied to the three-bed semi-ds in Crawford Gate, another resale offer here could be expected to float at €415,000, up €90,000 from the three-bed originals’ €325,000 sale price when new.

Just two Crawford Gate houses show to date at over €400,000, Louisa Court at €405,649, and No 13 Frederick Avenue at €402,598, likely to be the largest 1,450 sq ft types and both listed in 2020 in the scheme of 65 three-and four-bed homes off the Skehard Rd and Bessboro.

A mix of terraced and end/semi-detached homes which started on site in late 2018, Crawford Gate was done by DOB developments (a new generation headed by the O’Brien family of O’Brien and O’Flynn house-building tradition) on a 3.8-acre site. It was once home to one of Cork’s finest houses and estates, Lakelands, demolished 140 years ago and which was owned by the Crawford family. Their name lives on in the city centre as benefactors of the now-municipal art gallery, and owners of the Beamish & Crawford brewery back in the day.

Now rapid price inflation during the past two years of the pandemic has seen unpredicted and frothy growth in the property market nationwide — close to 30% in the case of No 1 Lakelands Gardens if it sells for or above the asking price.

Not surprisingly, it’s in walk-in order, in a location served by two bus routes, the 202 and the 215, and has the Blackrock Greenway running close by too, with both Mahon’s retail and office parks as well as Blackrock village within a walk.

It has a front reception room, rear kitchen/diner, guest WC and utility, and four compact first floor bedrooms (one with en suite shower room) and a main bathroom with shower over the bath.

The enclosed back garden has an Astroturf finish, and BER-wise it’s A3 rated, so will be easy to power and heat, a bonus for buyers once they can afford the purchase price.

Buyers may have the option to rent a room, or two, for income support, up to a current maximum of €14,000 tax-free under the Rent a Room scheme. However, first-time buyers will not be able to avail of the Help to Buy scheme, or of the newly introduced Shared Equity Scheme as No 1 Lakelands Gardens is now a second-hand property.

VERDICT: Some 200 people, mostly first-time buyers, queued to inspect Crawford Gate houses in 2019 on their launch. The buyer catchment will be far smaller now given the rise in values and prices since.