Property lovers will covet Cork's Nirvana...a €720k place of bliss on the Blackrock Road
Peaceful place: Nirvana is inside in cul de sac Menloe Gardens
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Blackrock Road Cork city |
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€720,000 |
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Size |
146 sq m (1,575 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
5/6 |
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Bathrooms |
3 |
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BER |
G |
THE Sanskrit word Nirvana represents the Buddhist belief in a state of a final bliss, free of material concerns and desires …but, it hardly applies to ambitions of those who’ll come looking at this new market arrival called Nirvana, in materially-sought after Menloe Gardens off Cork city’s main Blackrock Road.
Likely to be coveted by a cross-section of better-heeled home hunters, this Nirvana is an attractive, but dated semi-detached home, decades in same business family’s ownership, and now an executor listing with estate agent Brian Olden of Cohalan Downing.
He guides at €720,000 and who can well expect keen viewing interest, most likely from young families with architects in tow, and keen to buy for the long haul.
The profile of most recent sales is of purchase prices of €600,000, €700,000 and over €800,000 in cases, later being topped up post-purchase with further budgets of with further renovation and extension budgets of €250,000 to €500,000 for the ‘dream home’ in an ace location, off the main Blackrock Road (there have been one or two knock-down and rebuilds too).
If and when any ‘done-up’ one here in this cul-de-sac around a green next comes back for sale, starting prices will be €1m+: as it stands only one so far has topped €1m, and that was the now c 25-year old Kingslea, a 3,500 detached on a large corner site making €1.24m back in 2018.
That was sold by CDA’s Brian Olden, as were most of the last half a dozen Menloe Gardens sales and he says buyers typically are in their 30s and 40s with young families who love the location so close to Blackrock village, the safety, the open green area with mature chestnut trees and the quirks and challenges of working with an older home with character, and easily surmountable challenges.
Nirvana’s price guide at €720,000 is very much in the Menloe Gardens current ballpark: the most recent sale showing on the Price Register is of a home called Rozelle showing on the Price Register at €750,000, and which appears to have been done off-market and since then planning permission has been sought for extensions, replacement of a garage and other upgrades at Rozelle (Rozelle is the only Menloe Gardens resale since 2010 not to feature in these pages: it does so now here belatedly, just by ‘name drop’ default.)
Menloe Gardens adjoins the period home Menloe House, dating to 1800 (originally called Webbville) and which was rebuilt in 1937 after a fire: Menloe House shows on the Price Register at €900,00 in 2021 after a period on and off the market.
The 'Gardens' element dates approximately to ‘the war years,’ of the 1930s and ‘40s in the main, and Nirvana’s sellers have been here since 1946, being only its second ever occupants, so here for three-quarters of a century.
The park comprises about two dozen houses, with just over half of them semi-detacheds, and there’s quite a bit of diversity in the styling, roof and external finishes, as well as site sizes. Surprisingly, none was ever built day one on a particularly large scale, being nicely domestic for their day and at a time when domestic servants and a need for their accommodation were being dispensed with.
Nirvana has interlinked reception rooms, with tiled fireplace with hardwood surround and the décor and kitchen looks like it was modernised in the 1960s with some other alterations, and also latterly added was ground floor reception/bed six, left of the hall with en suite.
West facing at the front and near the main road access point to Menloe Gardens, it has several lean-tos and sheltering canopy covers fore and aft, has mature gardens and scores a basic G BER.
VERDICT: Menloe homes are, in the main, bought for life, witness the vendors’ own 78 year residency. Who’s next?
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