Job done at €785,000 revamped Gorsefield near the Cross Douglas Road

Hard to improve on the location or the energy rating of this four bed semi-d

Gorsefield, aka 22 Loretto Loreto Park, South Douglas Road 

South Douglas Road, Cork city
€785,000
Size	111sq m (1,190sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	A3

THE selling agent for Gorsefield might as well shout out its best attribute — ‘The work is all done’ — because that’s what’s going to sell it, and likely in jig time too.

The c 1950s/1960s four-bed semi-d featured in these pages in autumn of 2024, when it had an E1 BER, and carried a €540,000 asking price.

Gorsefield in 2024, before the revamp

In the event, it sold for €520,000, just under the asking price - unusual enough for an address like Cork’s Loreto Park, just off the South Douglas Road and near the Cross Douglas Road, where normally bidding drives prices over launch levels.

Equally unusual was the fact that the buyers bit the second bullet, and fully did all the messy and bitty work necessary to get the 111sq m/almost 1,200sq ft semi, with adjacent garage, from its previous lowly E1 energy rating right up to this year’s highly covetable A3.

Hallway at Gorsefield

Having done the work, they have now decided to sell Gorsefield, aka 22 Loreto Park (sometimes also spelled Loretto), as their plans have changed over the past 18 months or less, says estate agent Stuart O’Grady, of Sherry FitzGerald, who just started viewings as this early January 2026 weekend approached, at a time when stock is at very low levels.

A new front door at Gorsefield

The speed of the turnaround in Gorsefield’s resale offer is quite swift, and shows a c 50% increase in value from the 2024 €520,000 purchase price, to the €785,000 AMV selling price. The increase chimes with anecdotal accounts of current upgrades/extensions on dated semi-ds coming in at €200,000 to €300,000, and more again if substantially extended.

No 22/Gorsefield is the same size as before, and its detached garage is pretty much as-was, only loosely linked to the house by a side wall with gate for security: the option to extend into it/colonise it/replace it wasn’t taken by its most recent set of buyers.

New French doors to the patio 

It now has air-to-water heating, delivered via radiators at both ground and first-floor levels, and not underfloor at ground level as is often the case, even in retrofits. It has also been externally wrapped, along with other insulation improvements; has new flooring (oak, and porcelain tiling); has new internal and external doors; new glazing and French patio doors behind; redone bathrooms, plus a new kitchen, and full redecoration.

New kitchen

The look is neutral/tending to shades of greys in terms of colours, and basic furniture shows scope for a new owner’s personality stamp and choice of appearance and character, while the rooms layout is similar to before, with separate front reception rooms, two to the front as the main entrance is to the side.

Side entrance

There’s a guest WC off the hall, which fits in a shower, and a utility off the standard-sized rear kitchen, while upstairs are four bedrooms, one with a shower room en suite, to make for three wash rooms in all.

Overall condition is effectively now ‘as new’, with a single door linking one of the two front reception rooms to the kitchen: even switching this to a glass door might add a slight extra airiness and light flow?

Reception room

Apart from the A3 BER, a key attraction for many will be the west-facing and mature back garden, with the ‘downsizing/rightsizing’ niche development Josephine McCoy Mews to the west, a 25-unit scheme of one and two-bed homes done by developers Lyonshall/Clancy Construction for Cork City Council/Tuath Housing.

Generous back garden at Gorsefield

The Price Register shows only a handful of resales in ‘Loretto’ but shows more if the spelling Loreto is used and that’s where Gorsefield’s previous and quite recent sale is recorded. Also showing with a Loreto ‘one t’ address is Trenton, in 2024 at €540,000, while a large detached called Lauderdale sold in 2023 at a recorded €877,500. Most others were in the €400,000+ category, with one called Edan making €600,000 in 2022, but that was for a four-bed detached, not a semi-d, on a corner site within Loreto.

VERDICT: Fresh-faced for its c 1950s vintage, Gorsefield is now going to a be a far more comfortable and cheaper-to-run home, even if the vendors opted not to make more radical opening up (and expensive) layout/extension changes.