Stellar southside Cork home is ready to go for €495,000

Neighbourhood eyes will be the glued to the price paid for 20 Aylesbury

20 Aylesbury, Ballintemple, Cork.

Ballintemple, Cork city
€495,000
Size	128 sq m (1378 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	3
BER	A

Carefully cultivated Aylesbury, an upmarket estate in Cork city’s southside, has had only two re-sales since its fanfared launch in 2018.

Back then, 800 queued to see the first showhouse in this Centurion Homes development in Ballintemple, attracted by the slick mix of handsome homes and cracking location.

Among the showhouse tourists was the couple who bought No 20 Aylesbury, a 128 sq m three-bed duplex, as roomy as many’s the estate semi-d.

“At the time, we were looking for something smaller and we weren’t very attracted to what was available on the second-hand market. The duplex suited our needs and was in a very convenient location,” the couple say.

Impressed by the showhouse, they bought off the plans.

“We bought it in 2019 and I think we were just the second set of people to move into the park,” they say.

They’re just the third set of owners to put their property back on the market and as it’s the first re-sale of a duplex, there’ll be keen interest among other duplex-dwellers in the park.

Aylesbury, a 74-home development, has a good mix of house styles, a variety that translates to a broad buyer profile, from young professional couples to young families, to retirees/downsizers.

The vendors of No 20 fit into the latter category and they’ve enjoyed living in a neighbourhood with cross-generational appeal. Of even greater appeal was owning a house where “everything works”.

“It’s so cosy, it’s always warm and dry and costs very little to run. The heat pump is run off electricity and the bills are always very small,” the couple say.

It’s a bright, inviting, stylish home, with a high-spec fit-out, including a Kube kitchen (the couple upgraded it) with Silestone worktops; bathrooms with pressurised showers; aluclad Munster Joinery windows with large feature sliders to the rear; a west-facing balcony off the kitchen/dining room; A-rated air-to-water heat pump; a log-effect electric fire in the reception room.

“The lounge is bigger than those in the largest Aylesbury homes,” the owners say, and theirs is a fine room, where natural light floods in through a big box bay.

Accommodation at No 20 starts on the first floor – there’s a ground-floor apartment underneath – and includes lounge, kitchen/dining room with outdoor balcony, a utility and a generous guest WC.

One of three overhead bedrooms has an ensuite; the owners opted for a shower instead of a bath in the main bathroom and one bedroom is adapted for use as a fine study/home office.

While the duplex doesn’t have a garden, the upside is no lawn maintenance.

It’s a smart, ready-to-go home with a best-in-class A2 energy rating and selling agent Karl O’Reilly of Savills is busy with enquiries. They include downsizers impressed by the convenience and turnkey condition; young families who like the proximity to Douglas and Blackrock, where schools/sports/amenities are plentiful and professionals looking for a lock-and-leave pad. There’s even the odd investor.

Neighbourhood eyes will be on the price paid.

The only other two sales within the estate have done well. No 4, a four-bed detached home, sold last year for €955,000, from a guide of €895,000; No 67, a four-bed semi, sold this year for €695,000, below the asking of €710,000, but a good chunk of money above the €520,000 it sold for in 2020 as a new build. The guide price for the duplex is €495,000.

VERDICT

: Walk-in home with stellar energy rating in failsafe location.