Away the Well? €495k bungalow on Cork's Well Road holds many options

Well, well, well, 1950s charmer Manresa may be upgraded, enlarged — or replaced?

Swings and roundabouts on Cork's Well Road with lots of changes in train. SOMA Coffee at right,  replaced GoGo's  Bungalow Manresa facing, on left. Pic Larry Cummins.x

Well Road, Douglas, Cork
€495,000
Size	100 sq m (1,070 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	1
BER	E2

THERE’S been steady changes in and around the modest, floral roundabout on Cork City’s Well Road — and the arrival of this modest looking bungalow called Manresa to the Douglas residential market is only going to add to the incremental upgrades and private homes expenditures.

Manresa as it stands

Dating to the mid-1900s,’Manresa’ (called after a town in Spain’s Catalonia) has been in the one family’s hands for half a century or more, now almost concealed from view behind mature hedges between its two entrances.

Glimpse of Manresa on the Well Road.

But it’s easy to give Corkonians direction to: just say it’s opposite GoGo’s cafe on the Well Road.

Now, it hardly matters that quality food emporium and cafe, GoGo’s last year relocated to a larger premises at Ardfallen, and its slot has been taken over by new operators, a branch of the coffee café Soma...people will know just where this spot is, as foodie familiarity breeds “content”.

Roundabout on Well Road/ R853 at the junction with Woodview where a sleek, low-slung architectural new house has just been completed, opposite the entrance to Douglas Hall Lawn. Pic Larry Cummins.

Snugly set and low slung, Manresa has two entrances to the Well Road, one by the roundabout side for car access and also a small pedestrian gate on the Douglas village side.

Rear view of Manresa

Inside on its compact suburban site it’s a c 1,075 sq ft three-bed bungalow, on a slightly tiered site with its very private back garden at a slightly lower level, backing onto a couple of 1960s-built homes to the rear in Douglas Hall Lawn.

Living room

Now an executor sale, ‘Manresa’ is listed with agent Dennis Guerin of Frank V Murphy, who guides at €495,000 and who predicts wide interest, from traders down to relocators.

Refitted main bathroom

It’s dated, has an E2 BER, and will need spending — just how much is up to its buyers, who may choose to upgrade? Renovate and extend? Go upwards another level for a two storey home? (Or, even go down, and go out the back?)

Or else, not entirely unlikely, it may be demolished and replaced and built anew, from scratch to an A BER standard.

All options indeed are there, as well as precedents.

Diagonally across the road at the junction with Woodview, a sleek, dark architectural shape has been delivered on the site of a bungalow bought in 2019 for €475,000 and replaced. On the Skehard Road side, 200m up the Well Road, an upgraded detached called ‘Randall’ has been sale agreed for over its €1.25m guide, finding quick purchase.

Randall House is 'sale agreed' on the other side of the  Well Road roundabout, Douglas

Three doors away from ‘Manresa’, past a pair of two-storey semi-ds, a substantial modern detached home ‘Glencove’ was built some years ago to a classical palette, with columned porch, brick and render finish and occupies much of its deep, wedge-shape site. Might ‘Manresa’s’ next owners do something similar?

At the Douglas side, nearer the “village”, a detached c 2,800 sq ft new build called ‘Inish’ went to market last month with a €1.35m AMV, one of two very upmarket detached on a compact site, which themselves are much-loved by traders and where No 11 was a recorded 2023 seller at €420,000.

What of ‘Manresa’ as it stands today, on its site of c 608 sq m, or one sixth of an acre?

Homely, it has an attached garage, stepped back, on its left hand side by the vehicular entrance, with conversion/integration potential and part of the property’s existing built footprint.

It’s entrance is at the far side then, with the three bedrooms on the front elevation by the garden, and to the back is a pleasant living room with white marble fireplace, a main and solid bathroom, plus a living/dining room off a small kitchen with blue-painted units and access to a rear hall/store.

There’s access to a large attic, for storage right now, but, as is the case with the overall property, what you see here right now isn’t remotely comparable to what is likely to be here in even a year or two’s time.

Well Road, by  Douglas estuary

Auctioneer Dennis Guerin dates the existing build to the early 1950s and say the sale “offers an excellent opportunity to acquire a detached residence and to modernize/extend to one’s own design and specification,” on a secluded site with east-west aspect.

VERDICT: The property is in a super suburban setting and has scope galore.