Sunny A3 home set high on a hill could be €650k Apple of buyer's eye 

Revamped '60s Tibidabo’s hillside city setting is crowned by the ever-expanding Apple campus

Tibidabo is on the hill up to Hollyhill and Apple's European HQ. Agetn Trevor O'Sullivan of Lisney Sotheby's International  Realty guides at €650,000

Shanakiel, Cork city
€650,000
Size	152 sq m (1,600 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	A3

Sun spot close to city

CALLED after a tall mountain looming high over Barcelona and crowned by a church is Cork city’s Tibidabo.

Balcony for views

However, instead of a church up top, its Shanakiel hillside city setting is crowned by the ever-expanding Apple campus, now a scene of frenzied office building and several whirring tower cranes as Apple’s major skyline expansion at lofty Hollyhill continues apace.

Stitched panorama of Apple Campus and the construction work on the Apple Campus, Hollyhill  in August 2023. Pic Larry Cummins

Indeed, much has changed since this Tibidabo first rolled into town itself, all 1960s era swagger and design features, a stone’s throw from ever-so genteel Sunday’s Well.

A3-rated Tibidabo is on Shanakiel Road  above Sundays Well

 

Tibidabo is at the front of a 1960s development of more traditional detached homes called The Grove, and is also addressed as No 13 The Grove.

Interior after upgrade and energy retrofit

It shows on the Price Register as a 2022 sale, making a recorded €360,000 and at the time was a very dated ‘60s home, in poor order, with a G BER and c 1,400 sq ft of space.

Its AMV at that stage had been €395,000, so it sold for under the asking, not surprising as it needed quite bit of work.

1960s character and outline remains

Well, the good news is, it’s all been done now; it’s overhauled and has had an energy upgrade to an A3 BER standard with a wood-burning stove plus air-to-water heating, delivered underfloor at ground level under new flooring.

Bathrooms are updated, as are windows; the external flat roof is reskinned with fascias and soffits renewed; exterior is wrapped with insulation, whilst the former attached double garage now houses a multi-purpose room with bathroom, with another guest WC by the hall and a main bathroom upstairs, serving three/four bedrooms (one’s quite small and another is L-shaped.)

Rear with stores

The overall feel is of quite different, far more comfortable home, put at 1,600 sq ft now after the garage conversion (it could do with windows to the front, but this may need planning?) by selling agent Trevor O’Sullivan of Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty (SIR), who now guides the much changed entity at €650,000: the Price Register shows just a handful of other Grove Shanakiel resales, including that of the more traditional No 2 which featured here in 2021 with a then guide of €495,000, and No 2 The Grove shows as selling in 2021 for €555,000 and once again in 2023 at €580,000.

Bright and warm

Lisney SIR’s Mr O’Sullivan — who has previously sold for the clued-in and hands-on owners who did the work here — says the finished job is magnificent and adds that it “seamlessly blends modern luxury with breathtaking panoramas.”

Tibidabo is on a plot of one sixth or 0.15 of an acre by The Grove on the Shanakiel Road, and still has a useful outdoor store/garage block. It faces south-west, with a door access off the main first floor bedroom to a generous sized balcony (an original feature) overlooking Shanakiel, and the city and western suburbs beneath, all within a 15 minute walk of the city centre, major employment centres like UCC and hosptials, and has FitzGeralds Park also within a short downhill wander.

VERDICT: This Tibidabo is a tad more Barcelona-like now inside, thanks to its energy upgrades to an A-BER standard, and with its views may well be the apple of its next cosier occupants.s