Giving landlords a good name... €925k No 10 North Mall is on Leeside's nicest  street

Period house with five rental units on Leeside boulevard was appreciated by mindful landlord owner over the past 30 years 

Put your investor hat over the parapet at No 10 North Mall (centre of pic): Agent Brendan Bowe says it's a credit to its investor owner who bought in the early 1990s. Pictures: H-Pix

North Mall, Cork City Centr
€925,000
Size	230 sq m (2,465 sq ft)
Bedrooms	8
Bathrooms	6
BER	Exempt

ONE of Cork city’s most elegant streets, with river-facing houses dating to the mid 18th century, Leeside’s North Mall has been inching its way back to a state of near-original finery over the past several decades.

Icons all: North Mall, with a shrouded Shandon Steeple in the background

Apart from the charming set-back of North Abbey Square with its cottage-like homes, most of its length is characterised by a long run of substantial three storey terraced homes, interspersed with arched carriageways, and despite having been built in various decades, most have formal parapets set at an equal height for a visual uniformity, and with a delight in the Lee view frm North Mallvariety of widths, door frames, windows, and architectural detailing including scrolled lamp standards, front railings and even a wrought iron balcony spanning the full four-bay width of one, No 8.

Two other mid-terrace houses on the North Mall were rescued by caring purchasers a decade or so back after dereliction and fire damage, fully restored to good health with practical input at the time of Cork City Council conservation architect Pat Ruane (now retired).

View to Grenville Place

Others have had sensitive owners for decades – former City Architect Neil Hegarty acquired two and upgraded them – whilst the North Mall is also known for its hugely appreciated Franciscan Well tavern and its beer’n’pizza garden to the back, against the sandstone cliff-face on the site and likely part of the site of the 13th century Franciscan North Abbey in this historic city stretch.

The North Mall’s homes, some broad, others slender and the most elegant of all, the bow-fronted No 2 near the Mall’s early 1800 Distillery House, all have their faces and largely appropriate windows turned south to the sun, to the swans on the River Lee’s north channel, and over to the irregularly developed Bachelor’s Quay: there’s rarely a time when there isn’t something passing to engage the eye.

Lodge to the rear of No 10, which also has off-street parking for two cars via  nearby carriageway

Set in the midst of all this respectfully characterful period era-spanning street is No 10 South Mall, a three-storey 18th century mid-terrace build which has been owned by a private investor since the 1990s, and inside contains four apartments, a one bed and three two-beds, as well as a one-bed mews-style cottage to the rear – all currently vacant, for the past 14 months.

Period era No 10’s great condition and being fully compliant in terms of fire regs and build standards, as well as new roof on its double hipped span, appears to restore some balance to the common perception of landlords as merely money-driven, often insensitive to the preservation and maintenance of their properties and oft-times disrespectful of their neighbours and neighbourhoods: No 10 has been in good hands for over 30 years, likely home over that span to a wide variety of tenants who had the city on their elegant doorstep.

One of the four apartments in the main house

It’s for sale now with estate agent Brendan Bowe who says his private client is now divesting of assets and since it went to market in the past week “the phones have lit up, it’s all investor interest even despite changes coming in March 2026 for landlords.” (the changes include alteration to tenure periods and ending tenancies, rent controls etc on new tenancies.

That investor interest in pre-1964 investment property No 10 North Mall is coming from far and wide, Mr Bowe adds as he starts first viewings in the run up to (and over) the October Bank Holiday weekend.

Rear annexe

He guides the slender two-bay 230 sq m/2,465 sq ft BER-exempt property at €925,000, with up to eight bedrooms and six bathrooms across four apartments and the one-bed mews, with much original retained architectural detailing, eg fireplaces, sash windows, plasterwork, later terrazzo floor in the entry hall exposed ‘slob’ brick etc.

Notably too, it has a rear courtyard and stepped enclosed rear garden with old orchard, and there’s off street parking to the rear/wests via a carriageway at No 8 North Mall.

Rents in new tenancies at No 10 could range from €1,700 for the one-bed to c €2,000 for the three two-beds and even more for the self-contained rear mews, it’s suggested.

VERDICT: Almost certainly a private investor buy, Cork city’s No 10 North Mall could also suit a buyer who’d keep the lodge for themselves and keep an eye on careful tenancies to keep the investment up to the neighbourhood-friendly standard it currently presents in.