Third time round for bountiful €795k 14 Botanika

Blackrock Road Cork semi-d to resell for all the right reasons

No 14 Botanika first sold in 2019 for €595,000, then again in 2021 for €775,000 and now comes around again, at €795K. How much higher might it go now?

Botanika, Blackrock Road, Cork City
€795,000
Size	154 sq m (1,650 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	A3

LET’S just be very clear: there’s nothing wrong with 14 Botanika, as the upmarket home off Cork’s Blackrock Road comes back for sale, for the third time in just over five years.

In fact, there’s a heck of a lot right with it, hence the instant pressure this past week on viewings, some 25 logged at the house by this Thursday, in week one alone.

25 viewings for 14 Botanika already this week

It’s indicative of the level of demand at this price point, and at higher levels — which will be good news for the recent buyer of niche residential sites on the Blackrock Road (Feltrim, at €5m) and Victoria Road of a 0.85-acre site for over the €1.5m guide, with full planning for new builds in a period home’s back garden. Meanwhile, among the €1m+ sales showing on the Price Register is a new-build, called Kilcash, with a Blackrock Road address and which made a recorded €1.505m.

Back at Botanika, the area’s most recent ‘new’ home development, finished back in 2019, the 1,650 sq ft four-bed No 14 in the instantly appreciated development in Cleve Hill sold day one, brand new, for €595,000.

It came back up for grabs in 2021 as the first resale offer, as its owners traded up within the Citidwell developers’ Botanika scheme to a detached: estate agent Michael Downey of ERA Downey McCarthy launched it at €635,000... and it soared, onward and upwards, in bidding, to €775,000, according to the Price Register.

Smart interiors at No  14

It’s likely the vendors of semi-d No 14 at the time bought detached No 17, showing on the Register at €885,000: it’s the highest price to date here, where the detacheds had sold day one from €820,000 to €850,000.

Now, it would appear that a semi-d as good as No 14 clearly may also breach the €800ks threshold: the only question is how far into this price bracket? Hmmm, other residents and early buyers here will watch with keen and vested interests, whilst week’s viewers may well watch with a mix of bated breath and, ultimately, dismay when all bar one are disappointed.

No 14’s current vendors bought only four years ago, as a young couple with a baby. Now, they have three children, aged five and under, and are selling as they’ve already bought elsewhere, nearby.

Their 1,650 sq ft four-bed home, with charming children’s bedrooms and a play area in the back garden (with astroturf down) is in great condition and very well presented, decoratively looking a bit different to when it last was offered, but essentially it’s the same, same navy blue Glenline kitchen, rooms layout, etc.

Kitchen by Glenline

The couple added a glazed, room-sized lean-to or veranda out to the back, which faces north, over a paved patio, with glass roof and glass side panel on the boundary/west section, and also put a glazed roof over the side access passage to allow for dry storage of goods, bikes, buggies, toys, and the like.

There’s all-weather seating under the veranda’s glass top, and while the ‘lawn’ is pretty much maintenance free as it’s astroturf, there is growth and greenery in raised beds around the garden’s perimeter, planted up with shrubs while above the boundary is ringed in timber for a pleasing, softening aesthetic.

Out front is brick-paved with parking for three or four cars, and there’s a charger for an electric car. The city is an easy walk along the Blackrock Road in one direction and Ballintemple and the Marina are off to the east.

Plenty of off-street car parking plus electric car charger

No 14 has views out to the rear over Monahan Road and Centre Park Road toward Montenotte while also hoving into the picture are three yellow cranes on the Live at the Marquee/old Fords distribution site, setting out to build the first of the south dock’s major apartment schemes.

VERDICT: Price growth at Botanika has been strong, for sure, and there’s more to go yet...