€695k Hawksview has buyers swooping in as sea views spark bidding war

Perched above Fennells Bay, this upgraded Crosshaven bungalow is drawing high bids thanks to smart style and sea views

Big blue yonder: Hawksview scans the ocean at Fennells Bay, by the mouth of Cork harbour and near Crosshaven. Agent Michael Pigott is gone well over the €695k asking price on the blue bungalow. Pictures: Ted Murphy

Fennells Bay, Crosshaven, South Cork
€695,000
Size	149 sq m (1,600 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	C1

TIP for a good house sale? Choose attractive and appropriate colours for rooms and outside walls, and if there’s anything at all to highlight outside to look at, put the word ‘View’ into the name.

It’s working a treat for the vendors of Hawksview, utterly apt especially when looking at drone images of the setting of this late 2000s circa 1,600sq ft bungalow, overlooking the ocean at Fennels Bay, outside the mouth of Cork harbour and Crosshaven village.

Blue suits Hawksview: the house has been upgraded, but not extended

Bought only a few years ago by an eagle-eyed couple with ‘a good eye’ themselves (one’s an architect), it’s as view-worthy inside as it is outside: little wonder estate agent Michael Pigott is busy with viewings, has a dozen or more so done already, and bids have gone well over the €695,000 AMV, currently heading to the mid €700ks.

Its bidding prowess sort of shadows that of another recent Fennells Bay listing Fair View, a stone rectory with lesser (yet engaging) views but with property pedigree and a rare B3 BER, coincidentally owned by a couple with one partner also an architect. Fair View featured here in February, with a €730,000 AMV (via Sherry FitzGerald) and is gone well into the €800ks already.

Yup, there's a view

Detached bungalow Hawksview has had recent upgrades, especially in vital style areas like the bathroom, kitchen, and in the very well-appointed utility, almost a second kitchen in effect, and décor and finish levels are now higher than heretofore.

It’s hard to discern what it sold for last time, around or before the start of covid, as the name Hawksview doesn’t appear on the Price Register which covers 33 Fennells Bay address sales since 2010, and with only four of those above the €500,000 mark … to date.

The south Cork coastal area around Crosshaven, Myrtleville, and Fountainstown has surged in demand since covid and shows no signs of stopping, with a number of new builds having popped up (one oddly angled flat roof one has arrived right next door to Hawksview) and other homes have undergone extensive rebuilds, as even a cursory drive around will now reveal.

Clicking on Google streetview with Hawksview’s listing online shows how it looked just a few years ago, with its dash unpainted: now that it’s a cheery seaside blue, it’s lifted up in the visual stakes for kerb and bird’s eye appeal.

The site it’s on is quite large, with an attractive looking cabin, and is pleasantly landscaped, with a retained deck on a gable end off the open plan kitchen/ dining/ living end. The main bedroom is at the far corner, en suite, and has sea views but not an especially large window, with three other bedrooms to the rear, while the separate living room midships is a calm and well-dressed space, with views.

Blue-ming

Selling agent Michael Pigott say there may be scope for a second dwelling at some future stage, subject to planning, and says he’s getting a wide range of inquiries, from traders up to traders down, as well as relocators: his vendors aren’t moving far, just heading closer to services in Crosshaven itself.

VERDICT: Hawksview shows you don’t have knock walls, build vast extensions or the like to get a whole new feel to an older era bungalow. Of course, ocean vistas help too.