To the Manor born at €1m Model Farm Road home

8 The Manor is a five-bed home with a large west-facing back garden

8 The Manor, Model Farm Road

Model Farm Road, Cork
€1m
Size	217 sq m (2336 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	3
BER	D2

The O’Flynn Group was well out of its infancy but not yet scaling up to the level of development it subsequently delivered at the likes of Mount Oval in Rochestown when it built The Manor, an upmarket scheme of about two dozen homes at the western end of Model Farm Rd, in the early 1990s.

Geared towards the upwardly mobile, they were a magnet for families trading up, particularly those whose place of work was a hospital campus in the western suburbs (Cork University Hospital in nearby Wilton, the Bon Secours on College Road) or a third-level college such as UCC or MTU, or indeed the IDA Business and Technology Park, quite literally a stroll down the road.

Not too many homes in The Manor have featured in these pages, principally because they rarely come up for sale: Just four have come to the open market since 2010, indicating that they’ve been “keepers” for the people who live in them.

The most recent sale was of No 22 which raised the bar no end as it made an intoxicating €1.08m. A seven-year gap between its sale and the previous one in 2014 (when No 19 sold for €610,000) makes comparisons futile.

What we do know about the €1m+ sale is that No 22 was more than twice the house it used to be, as it featured in these pages. Having started out at 1,800 sq ft, by the time its downsizing owners came to sell up, it had grown to a whopping 4,700 sq ft.

As that sale took place five years ago – and the only way property prices have gone since is up – it’s not much of a stretch to see The Manor’s latest market arrival – No 8 - come up for sale with a price tag of a round €1m.

It goes without saying that location is tops for anyone working in the city’s western suburbs, while the house size (217 sq m) and bedroom count (five) screams: Family.

It’s been a family home for the vendors since they moved in in 1992, with a conservatory added at their request by the builders.

Selling agent Michael Downey of ERA Downey McCarthy says they bought it “brand new, a professional couple, having returned from abroad” and he expects a similar buyer profile this time.

“It’s a super house in a great location and once people get in to The Manor, they tend to stay. You can see that by the very few that have changed hands,” the agent says.

The current owners have reared a family and are downsizing: The requirement for five bedrooms (one with en suite) and as many reception rooms (lounge, living room, dining room, kitchen, conservatory) is no longer there. Neither do they need as much outdoor space.

No 8 has a fine west-facing rear garden with patio and a front drive that can accommodate several cars.

Energy-wise, the house is rated ‘D’, so upgrades are likely, along with a small bit of modernising eg a new kitchen is probably on the cards, along with new sanitary ware. Overall though, the house is in very good shape.

VERDICT: An estate that has always appealed to professionals and you’d expect the buyers to fit that profile.