€295k Douglas Road pad has an invested owner who created best possible space

WITH its latest phase overseen by an architect, and with its investor owner (and keen reader of Irish Examiner Property & Home) both with more than a passing interest in ‘doing the right thing’, No 8, Scabeg Terrace has moved with the times.

The mid-terrace Cork home, on the city’s South Douglas Road, dates to the last quarter of the 19th century, when all around this area were market gardens and farms.

No 8 has had a variety of owners and occupiers and, among his property deeds, the current owner has a tenancy agreement copy, signed in 1956, when it was to be let at a weekly rent of 10 shillings, with £5 kept as a deposit to ensure it was maintained.

More recently, it has been let out at c €1,300 a month, with only two sets of appreciative tenants since the early 2000s thanks to its quality. And, it’s only being sold now as the small-time landlord (one of the select few not fleeing the market?) has another project in hand, doing up a duo of derelict cottages in suburban Ballintemple.

Thus the funds from this sale will likely roll over into another smart job and, once more, he’s using designer Pat O’Sullivan of Kiosk Architects who, in fairness, don’t really normally do jobs at this end of the scale in Kiosk’s well-established Cork practice.

No 8’s owner had spotted a feature on an architect-driven makeover of a similar vintage, small city property around Evergreen Road, back in Property & Home in 2011, that he really liked the look of, admiring its clever use of space.

He kept the pages for reference and inspiration, folded up his wallet (online versions not quite so readily available back then.) Eventually, he approached architect Pat O’Sullivan with his piece of newsprint and asked for something similar, but tailored to fit.

This is what he got, and it has aged extremely well, thanks to attentive builder Alan Lynch. “You only get this sort of result and clever use of space using an architect,” says the now-vendor of the smart-looking No 8, a 72sq m mid-terraced period two-bed home, with an impressive B2 BER thanks to a fairly full overhaul, including documented 80mm dense insulation on the inside of the external wall while being able to retain as a highlight, the cottage’s old stone internal wall, painted a bright white, a real signifier of care and a particular aesthetic.

Add in crafted hardwood stairs, stainless steel handrail and the smart use of the upstairs/attic/mezzanine as a bright and warm living room with Velux windows (three, tightly placed together to the front) front and back and it all became a highly functional and pleasant two-bed home, with its bedrooms at ground level, front and back (it’s likely building regs might not have allowed the first floor to be properly classified as bedroom space).

In perfect nick, inside and out, and with a very nice ‘outdoor room’, an easily maintained good-size garden space, it’s on the market with agent Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald guiding at €295,000, and likely to appeal to first-time buyers, traders down and possibly even other investors.

Not only is it within a walk of the city centre and the nearby post office and business park, it’s also highly accessible by car or bus to and from the city centre.

Within a five minute walk, via Half Moon Lane (leading to Christ King Girls’ Secondary School) is a pedestrian access to the new Tramore Valley Park, a new public amenity of scale after a €40m remediation of the old Kinsale road landfill site which for decades after the 1960s afflicted the South Dougals road with smells, now thankfully banished.

That adjacent Half Moon Lane park access point is one of three, with cars accessing Tramore Valley Park via the south city link road, whilst pedestrians up in Grange and Frankfield can now also make full use of the park and its myriad facilities (pitches, BMX track walk loops and dome) thanks to the new Vernon Mount pedestrian bridge over the N40/city ring road.

VERDICT: Most likely to be bought by an appreciative private occupier, No 8 was a rental but not as generally perceived, and its sale will see profits roll over into another rental investment, in derelict city cottages of similar vintage. A good news story — cut out and keep this page......