International edge bookends Rochestown Cork's 5 Mount Oval as bids top €1m

Vendors post-crash in 2009 were going abroad: now, in 2025, bidders are returning from overseas

Sat, 11 Oct, 2025 - 00:00

Tommy Barker Property Editor

Rochestown Road, Cork
AMV €875,000 but already over €1m in offers
Size	240 sq m (2,570 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	4
BER	B2

THERE’S at least one sense of the world turning in the case of the sale of 5 Mount Ovel: when it appeared in these pages in 2009, the owners of this 1970s colonial-style red-brick detached Rochestown home were selling to move to the Middle East.

And, now that it’s back for sale, many of the viewers to date (and, strong bidders) are Irish families returning from years and even decades living abroad in the likes of Dubai, elsewhere in the Middle East, Australia, the US, and nearer to home, many with young adult children in the background.

That’s the observation of estate agent Stephen Clarke of REA O’Donoghue Clarke who saw bids soar from his opening AMV of €875,000 to hit €1.05m within three days, with half a dozen or so bidders visible on the bidnow.ie platform “and it seems there’s a bit left in it next week”, said Mr Clarke in advance of a second Friday of viewings this week.

He’s acting for vendors also with an international background themselves, and who are taking on a new house build in the harbour area, having sold them a site.

“I’d say it’s something they always wanted to do themselves,” Mr Clarke reckons, adding they did an amount of work here at No 5, including creating a much larger main bedroom suite for themselves so that now there are two en suite bedrooms in a 2,570sq ft, B2-rated detached home, with south aspected rear garden.

The international ‘going away and coming back’ connection isn’t the only notable thing here, though — price and values also come into play.

Back when No 5 appeared here, the market’s fall and fallout from the 2008 global banking crisis meant the January ’09 price hope for No 5 at €1.25m was well wide of the mark…

In the event, it took nearly two years for No 5 to sell: the Price Register shows it getting a 50% ‘haircut’, and selling for €579,000 by the latter half of 2011, with the market slowly recovering from about 2012 to now stand at 10% above the 2007 peak, CSO figures show.

All of which means, in short, plenty of money sloshing around again (real money, this time, mostly, not insanely borrowed sums at least) and near record numbers of €1m+ sales in the Cork market, currently hitting between 70 and 80 according to the Price Register, with more to come by year’s end.

Just sailing into the €1m+ category itself now, No 5 Mount Ovel is in walk-in order, likely to be of as much appeal for the location, amount of space, maturity and modernity in the mix, thanks to fastidious owners. They added about 300 sq ft to what they’d bought almost 15 years ago, with linked kitchen/dining/drawing room, plus a study and a separate family room, all creating a great ground floor plan, with underfloor heating (gas) and triple glazing.

“It ticks all the boxes — private, safe, luxurious, spacious, and elegant, a truly magnificent home in a beautiful area,” says its selling agents.

VERDICT: While much of the Munster property market appears to be moderating in terms of previous frenetic activity, there’s always going to be strong buyers for a box-ticker like this.