Getting Close in Douglas in this €545k townhouse

Doing 'what it says on the tin,' easy suburban life beckons in so-central sweet 16 Douglas Close

Sat, 13 Dec, 2025 - 00:00

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports Images: H-Pix

Douglas, Cork City
€545,000
Size	139 sq m (1,500 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	3
BER	B3

IN ALL of the nearly 30 years that this niche townhouse scheme has been around, No 16 Douglas Close has only ever had the one and only owner … until now.

The development of 17 townhouses was completed in 1997, notable at the time for having its accommodation over three floors — a sort of layout harking back to 19th century Georgian and Victorian archetypes, as well as early 20th century Edwardian classics: It’s now widely common among a raft of new home developments where land prices are high, and plot sizes are low.

Three in a row: B3 rated 16 Douglas Close is mid-terrace, with parking

The brick-faced, upmarket townhouses of approximately 1,500 sq ft have first-floor living rooms (a piano nobile is the Italianate architectural description) and were built by Murnane & O’Shea for developer Brian Forrest. It is within 50 metres of the Fingerpost roundabout in Douglas, and thus has two shopping centres and a raft of other retail and restaurant offers on its doorstep.

They’ve always had an appeal to older buyers/traders-down, and couples, and the Property Price Register shows 11 resales since 2012, with No 14 showing on it twice, for €450,000 in 2017 and at €590,000 in 2024, the highest price to date.

No 7 sold by the start of 2025 for €545,000, while the only other one to go over the €500k mark was No 8 which made €540,000 in 2023.

Selling No 16 is agent Patricia Stokes, who is guiding the three-bed home at €545,000, and it comes on the back of the offer two or three months ago of No 1, similar in size but where its top floor had been made over to one large en suite main bedroom instead of two.

First floor living room or 'piano nobile'

No 1 was guided at €590,000 by John Corbett of Cohalan Downing and, while it’s had viewings, it has yet to get an offer.

So Nos 1 and 16 are slightly different offers for different buyers, with the two-bed €45k dearer than the three-bed, at least on asking prices/AMVs.

Where they end up respectively will be of interest now in December 2025 given that property website myhome reports that 40% of Irish house sales are going for more than 10% over asking prices, and one in seven surpassing original AMVs by 20%.

Selling agents are professionally bound to pitch asking prices within a 10% band or range of where they and they vendors feel the eventual value will be, and the myhome report shows that the 10% guide is more frequently surpassed at the lower end of the price scale: Once you come up to, or go over, €1m in home values, most sales in 2024 and 2025 of that sort of stock actually sold for less than their AMVs, by a factor of 2% to 4%.

The newest Douglas Close launch, No 16 has a B3 BER. It is open plan in a slightly split-level layout of kitchen/dining with living area down step for courtyard garden access, as well as having a guest WC, hall, and utility plus store.