City to County: Urban living in extended Limerick city home or stylish West Cork escape for €545,000

Seaside, lakeside or street-side home options rounded up by writer Trish Dromey

Sun, 27 Aug, 2023 - 11:08

Trish Dromey

South Circular Road, Limerick city
€475,000
Size	143 sq m (1,540 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	3
BER	D2

An attractively extended three-bed semi with period features and a South Circular Road Limerick city address, No 1 Richmond Villas has been getting a lot of attention.

Sean McGee of Sherry FitzGerald Limerick says he has booked viewings for the 1940s-built house with first time buyers, downsizers, and trade-up buyers. Guiding at €475,000, it has 143 sq m of living space and planning permission for a two-bedroom/one bathroom first-floor extension.

Upgraded in 2007 by current owners, the property has a front sitting room with a high ceiling with period coving and moulding. Beyond it is a family room/ playroom and a hallway with a utility room and a guest. At the rear is a sizable and stylish kitchen/dining room which has a vaulted ceiling with roof lights and cream granite topped units and a centre island.

The first floor has a bathroom and three modern timber-floor bedrooms including one en suite.

Outside, the property has quite a large garden with a large patio, a lawned garden and a parking area.

Mr McGee says it’s a charming property with garden space and with planning permission which will give buyers the opportunity to adapt it to their evolving needs.

Richmond Villas is located around 1.5km from Limerick centre and around 6km from both the University of Limerick and Raheen Business Park.

VERDICT: A well-located property with an attractive mix of period and modern features.

Clonbur, Co Galway
€525,000
Size	90 sq m (970 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	1
BER	D1

Paradise for an angler or for someone who simply wants to steal away to the waters and the wild, Ferry Bridge Lodge at Clonbur has 200m of shoreline on Lough Mask and the kind of tranquility and privacy that comes with two and a half acres of garden and woodlands.

Built in the 1970s, the well-maintained three-bed bungalow has been a fishing lodge for its overseas-based owner ever since. Since listing it this week with a guide of €525,000, auctioneer Helen Cassidy has had enquiries from the UK, Europe, and Ireland.

“Properties with this amount of lake shore frontage are very rare,” she says, pointing out that its owners can enjoy the peace and majesty of Lough Mask and activities such as fishing, kayaking, boating and swimming.

Accessed by a long private avenue, Ferry Bridge Lodge and its lawned, well-planted gardens are surrounded on all sides by deciduous woodland.

Accommodation in the 90 sq m bungalow includes a living room, a kitchen, a study, and a utility room as well as three bedrooms and a bathroom. A pathway through the gardens and the woods leads down to a stony shoreline (pictured) where the owners keep boats.

Located at Cappaghnagapple the property is just over 4km from Clonbur village. “It’s less than an hour’s drive from Galway city and within a ten minute one from Ashford Castle and golf course,” says Ms Cassidy.

VERDICT: A woodland idyll by the lake or perhaps a lakeside idyll in the woods.

Tramore, Co Waterford
€589,000
Size	159 sq m (1,711 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	E1

An elegant Victorian house with shuttered sash windows and a stepped fanlit doorway, No 3 Gurteen Terrace on Pond Road in Tramore is the type of property that relocating buyers love.

That’s according to auctioneer Michael Griffin who says that viewers for this type of house tend to be emigrants returning from US, the Middle East, and London rather than trade-up buyers from Waterford City. “There is a specific type of buyer who want history and character,” he observes.

Built in the 1860s and sympathetically upgraded by owners who have had it since the 1980s, this property is full of character. End-of-terrace in a row of three, it has high-ceiling rooms with coving, marble fireplaces, and restored original sash windows at the front.

Upgrades carried out by the owners have included rewiring, replumbing, attic insulation, damp proofing, and the fitting of double-glazed timber sash windows at the rear.

Accommodation includes two high-ceiling sitting rooms with marble fireplaces and a lounge/library as well as a kitchen and utility room. The upstairs has a bathroom and four bedrooms including one with an en suite. The BER is an E1 and upgrading will be required.

Sharing communal parking with the other houses, the house has a garden at the front and a patio at the rear.

Located within a 10-minute walk from the beach and the shops, 3 Gurteen Terrace is on the market with a guide of €589,000.

VERDICT: Timelessly elegant but will require careful modernisation.

Durrus, West Cork
€545,000
Size	88 sq m (960 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	1
BER	F

Quirky, stylish and wonderfully scenic with views of Dunmanus Bay, Redcliffe at Brahalish near Durrus is the type of property that entices overseas buyers to holiday in Ireland.

This is hardly surprising since the unusual L shaped, stone faced, single storey property is owned by a German couple who got an architect to design it for them in the 1980s.

“It’s contemporary and modern with a steep mono pitch roof and was well ahead of its time when it was built,” Elaine Spillane of Peninsula Properties says, explaining that the owner who has worked in interior design has upgraded it over the years.

Guiding at €545,000, the three bed property is fronted by a large patio with glass walls and sea views.

“The house has 88 sq metres of living space while the patio measures 37 sq metres” Ms Spillane says, adding that it’s on a site of 1.8 acres with 200 native trees planted in 2016.

Behind the almost fully glazed front wall, there’s a long, open plan living area which includes a galley style kitchen with grey units as well as a dining area and a sitting room which both have stone fireplaces.