House of the Week: vendors stayed over 60 years in Bishopstown suburb that 'has it all'

Settled suburb back on the move with new homes coming on stream, including from the Land Development Agency at Wilton's ESB HQ

17 Central Avenue stood at €550,000 in bid by late this week,  up from a €475,0000 AMV

Bishopstown, Cork
€475,000 AMV but under higher offer
Size	160 sq m (1,720 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	F

IT’s just over 60 years since a family bought no 17 Central Avenue in Cork’s then burgeoning Bishopstown suburb: in  their decades here since, they have seen the wider Bishopstown/Wilton area develop in fits and starts.

The next big step is the development by the Land Development Agency of 350 affordable and cost rental homes at the ESB site a kilometre away at the ESB’s Wilton campus, a site-in-waiting for decades.

Bishopstown is in a fairly constant state of evolution

And, just as the clan living at Bishopstown's No 17  Central Avenue (also called MacMor) moved with the decades,  doing internal upgrades and making changes such as updating internal doors, joinery such as architraves, putting in solid wood flooring and most notably adding a new oak staircase about a decade ago, the area around their aptly-named Central Avenue home has also advanced with the times, on housing, education and shopping fronts.

Rear view of 17 Central Avenue

While there’s little change on No 17’s immediate doorstep (other than the increasing maturity of this nexus of popular housing estates and gardens, generally good-sized four-bed semi-ds) the wider changes include the move upmarket by the old, 1970s ‘small’ Dunnes on the Curraheen Road with rear access option by Firgrove.

The old, or 'small'  Dunnes Stores on the Curraheen Road 

New 'small' Dunnes and its convenience offers, cheeses, deli and fish counters have been taken to a new level almost on a par with swanky ‘big’ Dunnes at the Bandon Road, and handily it's within a few minutes’ walk of Macmor, with ‘bag for life’ shopping bag in hand.

ESB Regional Headquarters Sarsfields Road Wilton,  seen here in 1999. The LDA is to deliver 350 new affordable and cost rental homes here

As well as the LDA plans for Wilton, new homes have already come along at Hawke’s Road, with over 60 builds and many gone to the affordable sector via Cork City Council, while there’s also a wide tenure mix of homes currently being developed at Waterfall Heights, with 275 units being developed and released for sale from the summer of last year - one of the largest Bishopstown area residential releases in decades.

Upwardly mobile: new stairs among several alterations since the 1960s

In tandem, the CUH medical behemoth continues to add services and buildings and staff at Wilton; the retail offer on its doorstep now has both and Aldi and a Lidl and the once-visionary Wilton Shopping Centre continues to trade strongly after larger-scale redevelopment plans lapsed in the past decade.

Separately, local schools and sports facilities too have continued to evolve and swell to accommodate growing numbers, as have third level institutes UCC on the east, and MTU on the west, both within a walk or cycle of ‘old’ Bishopstown.

So, little surprise there’s been such a swift uptake of interest in the arrival of No 17 Central Avenue for sale.

It got listed last week with agent Majella Galvin of DNG Galvin, who’s normally Bandon and West Cork based and she knows that this spacious four-bed is in the very heart of ever-popular Bishopstown.

She launched at €475,000, and almost immediately had an offer at the asking price.

By then end of this week, bids had taken it far higher, to €550,000 by Thursday, with that offer from home-hunters from “up the country,” and the wider mix showing interest so far include trade-up families, those looking to relocate back to Cork from out of the country as well as from Galway and Dublin, including some first-time buyers even with particularly solid pay packets.

Many too are from a generation that grew up in locations like Central Avenue, Westgate and Firgrove’s various sections; they would have gone to school locally, gone to third level locally and moved to jobs out of town, keen now to come ‘home’ and start or raise families in familiar surroundings.....returning to next,  like so many migratory bird species, or like salmon.

Living rooms run front to back

No 17 has a good deal of space as it already stands, with the attached garage upgraded, with a ground floor utility and guest WC, has connected and carpeted front and back reception rooms with a fireplace in one end and double doors to a patio at the other end, kitchen, updated hall and stairs giving a fresh look for a 61-year old home, and with four overhead bedrooms plus tiled bathrooms.

It’s had wood-grain effect double glazing and new doors added front, back and internally, and has gas central heating (yet, the BER’s a lowly F), while the kitchen was replaced some years back and a new one is likely to top any new owner’s wish list, plus perhaps energy efficiency upgrades.

As it stands, a new family could simply move in and make the updates at a pace that suits them and whatever leftover budget they have when bidding winds down, and it already has box-ticking points in its favour such as easy off-street parking in front, and a two-tier back garden with paved terrace/patio with a direct south aspect.

VERDICT: Bullet-proof location: no wonder the vendors stayed so long!