Unassuming central city gem with stunning garden and fully renovated interior for €345k

This apartment sized home has the city on its doorstep and a superb garden

72 Evergreen St, Cork

Evergreen Road, Cork City
€345,000
Size	65sq m (700sq ft)
Bedrooms	2
Bathrooms	3
BER	C

This house was the last thing the owner had been looking for on her first home hunt back in 2013: she had been looking for a doer-up, larger, maybe a 10-minute taxi ride from Cork city centre.

But, “an estate agent suggested I go look at No 72, and as clichéd as it sounds, as soon as I saw it, and the garden, I knew it was perfect.”

So says Aoife of No 72 Evergreen Rd, which at the time had just been done up top-to-toe by a builder, probably she felt who had been expecting to sell to an investor as the mid-terrace home on the city side of Turner’s Cross had two en suite bedrooms upstairs.

She jumped at it, secured it, loved everything about her unexpected find and now, as she comes to sell to move on, Aoife says “as well as the location, the garden still is the selling point for me”.

Since the house was effectively new, all she had to do in the inside was to maintain it, which she has done. The big change she made was to bring the south-facing rear garden up to whole higher level of look, finish, and usefulness, done as a covid project handily enough by her now-partner John, who professionally trades as John Cronin Paving, so it appears there was an advance match made in Evergreen Rd for the duo who are both, coincidently, from Blarney.

No 72 comes for sale this September as the couple have already embarked on a house renovation and extension project, also on Cork’s southside and again, in a walk/commute setting and, once more, their next home has a garden that they know will mean as much to them as this has, and have already started tree planting: “John’s in his element, he’s effectively project managing and planning,” says Aoife, with top notch paving to be a final flourish.

That’s the mark they leave at No 72, which started first viewings in recent days with estate agent Áine McLoughlin of AML Property Services, and with a large number booked in for today.

It’s priced at €345,000, which puts it within reach of a swathe of home hunters, from starters-out to traders down and quite a few in between, if not investors given the primacy of the setting so close to every service.

The Price Register shows it selling back in 2013/14 for €166,000, and a year before that to the builder who had bought it in raw, poor condition for €55,000 before starting his labours, and being rewarded for them.

Internally, it has been rewired, replumbed, replastered, has a new kitchen, quality wood floors (birch?), new windows with double doors to the paved rear courtyard, with seven limestone steps up to a sun-trap back garden with what’s described as premium artificial grass, has planters, limestone capped walls, screening, garden storage shed and landscaping.

John Cronin also cleared room for a sit-out spot right by the back doors.

Aoife says it’s been her joy, has a southerly aspect, isn’t overlooked and “is a sun trap all day long”.

Effectively, No 72 Evergreen Rd is sort of two-bed apartment sized, with small step-into hall with carpeted stairs on the left, and, on the right, a front to back kitchen, dining, and living room. First up is the kitchen with built-ins and a glass-tiled splashback; next a dining area and table by internal double doors, part-glazed, and the rear living room has a large wood-burning stove “which we rarely light as the house is so warm”, notes vendor Aoife.

That back room has a vaulted ceiling with Velux helping to get passive solar gain, while there’s also gas central heating. The energy rating for the home is a solid C.

The location has been another unexpected winner for Aoife, who lists off a long number of amenities within a walk, from the city centre via Douglas St (and its slew of bars, cafes, and eateries) or the South Gate Bridge and the Nano Nagle Centre, to the Tramore Valley Park, the Marina for strolls, whilst there’s residents’ parking on-street, with permit for car owners.

The airport bus passes almost on the doorstep, and though Aoife needs a car to get to work in Ballincollig “when I park it up at the end of the week it might stay parked then ’til Monday because it’s so central”.

Central? Evergreen Rd is now mid-way between two imminent transformative city developments. One’s the long-overdue development of hundreds of new apartments out on the Kinsale Rd/Tramore Rd at Creamfield (the old CMP site) and at the old Vita Cortex site by Musgrave Park, which will bring huge new life to the wider Turners’ Cross hinterland.

The other coming change is the reordering of Douglas St/Mary St/White St area of the South Parish to further make it “a village within the city”, with public realm improvements, and traffic restrictions, more greenery, highlighting historic buildings and public pocket space and paving.

Work on this approved scheme via a Part 8 City Hall process was scheduled to begin in late 2026 ... if anyone’s looking for a paving contractor, they’d best hurry up the road to No 72 Evergreen Rd.

VERDICT: Best goods in small parcels, and all that. It’s a little gem and, after 13 years, vendor Aoife is now working on the sort of renovation project that she’d first envisaged for herself back in 2013 before was won over by the unexpected joys of No 72.