Hill Street blues in Cork's South Parish for €255,000

City-centre charm on Nicholas Street

27 Nicholas Street, Cork city.

Cork City Centre
€255,000
Size	70 sq m (750 sq ft)
Bedrooms	2
Bathrooms	1
BER	G

THERE’S a higgledy-piggledy charm to Nicholas Street in Cork city’s South Parish — despite the proliferation of wheelie bins in bright primary colours, constantly strewn on its path and doorsteps, a visual blight, and a hazard for pedestrians and occasional motorists alike.

Might finding some savvy design solution to this regrettable ‘bin laden’ street clutter some day make a design challenge for students and staff at the Cork Centre for Architectural Education? It is a near neighbour at the junction of Douglas Street and Evergreen Street, after all, and is also adjacent to one of the city’s most popular new visitor centres, Nano Nagle Place, which has helped transform and energise this old city setting.

The chance to enjoy the essence of Nicholas Street has come along with the sale of No 27.

Set near the top of the hill and the grotto on Evergreen Street, No 27 is a mid-terraced 700 sq ft, three-storey and two-bed urban pad, with patina of age, a bit of faded glory, but convenience in spades.

It’s guided at €255,000 by estate agent Timothy Sullivan who has just launched it for vendors who lived here for a number of years, had rented it out more latterly, but are now selling what had become a rental/investment property since.

The Price Register shows 13 Nicholas Street resales since 2011, at prices from €60,000 to €232,000 while two larger outlier homes last year made €510,000 (No 30) and €470,000 (No 32, making double the €232,000 it made back in 2014).

The market response to No 27 has been immediate, with interest from first-time buyers and overwhelmingly, so far, from those who want to get out of the rental trap, with many more able to afford a mortgage at this level than paying exorbitant rents.

First-time buyers getting a 90% mortgage on a property at a €250k AMV will be looking at monthly repayments of €1,160 on a 30-year term: Average rents across Cork city and county are now at €1,500, and up to €1,900 pm in the city, with city two-bed rentals averaging €1,500 according to the latest website figures.

Mr Sullivan says No 27 is attractive for a number of reasons, from location to purchase cost versus rents, and adds it’s got a nice feel, with retained older features, painted floors and balusters, though the front door and windows were replaced some time in the relatively recent past.

It has gas central heating, but even still the BER’s a lowly G.

No 27 opens straight into an open plan living/dining/kitchen, looking directly at the stairs and curtained understair
storage. This multi-use room (with stove) is about 18’ deep and 14’ wide, with glazed door access to a crazy-paved patio, facing west.

Above is a mid-level bedroom and a relocated bathroom with shower over a bath with blue tile mosaic on the side, and the top floor has a second bedroom with views from the back over the Presentation Convent grounds.

VERDICT: No need for a car if living at Nicholas Street: There’s barely room for them to even navigate the hill.
Residents do have to bring bikes through these terraced houses, and/or bins. Wouldn’t the, eh, ‘roll out’ of the bins and some other recycle solutions be a boon all around? C’mon ye architects urbanistas...