Vacant home grants will boost buyers of 'third time lucky' €195k West Cork house sale

“WE’VE been selling cow sheds that are going to be renovated. Everyone want to do a renovation to a traditional house,” quips estate agent Susan O’Sullivan as she brings a bit of a West Cork charmer to market, not for the first time, not for the second, but for a third time, in quick succession.

The relatively recent introduction of grants for renovation of vacant and derelict houses (or any other structure which can be proven to have been lived in the past) is helping to drive the demand for renovation options, Ms O’Sullivan notes.

And, coming on top of lifestyle shifts post-pandemic allied to a desire to live by the sea, by other beauty spots and the freedom to remote work (with satellite broadband) all have driven up interest in previously ‘remote’ locations.

Thus it is at Ballycrovane, near Eyeries on the Wild Atlantic Way in West Cork where this vacant farmhouse within a few minutes’ walk of the pier at Ballycrovane and Kilcatherine on three lovely, wooded acres is back on the market within in the past week after not one, but two previous agreed sales fell through.

For whoever gets to buy it now and get a deal over the line - “third time lucky” enthuses its selling agent - and at whatever price is paid, the advantage of the two previous sales falling through means the Government grant for renovating a vacant home has, handily, in the second half of this year risen from €30,000 to €50,000.

Allied to SEAI energy upgrade grants, the €50k will of course help, for those that go through the right channels, but of course it all gets factored into the eventual purchase price, and the ambitions of the next occupants.

The winsome 780 sq ft two-bed, utterly traditional house isn’t for the faint of heart, but nor is it a daunting prospect.

It’s almost the kind of place you’d see at the more ambitious do-er up end of the scale on Cheap Irish Houses - maybe in the ‘before/after’ catch-up slot?!

Its scenic coastal setting, in one of the most beautiful of all locations on the Wild Atlantic Way adds enormously to the appeal, between Ardgroom and colourful Eyeries, with the alluring Allihies further out the Beara Peninsula.

Auctioneers Connor-Scarteen now guide this do-er up at €195,000. On its first market offer over a year ago, it was guided at €175,000, but was bid up to €197,500. An issue with maps that cropped up in the Land Registry at that time saw the purchasers lose patience, and they pulled out.

Second time around a sale was agreed at a more sizeable €212,000 in May 2023 to an overseas buyer who, for unspecified reasons, pulled out very late in the day, to the chagrin of the vendors.

The vendors/current owners had themselves only bought a few years prior, with the intention of doing it up themselves, having eagerly watched out  for its coming for sale for a number of years, according to Ms O’Sullivan who said it was an executor sale after a long-time occupant passed away.

It's likely to have lain idle for a number of years, since around 2015, she indicates. The Price Register shows just one sale at Ballycrovane in the past decade or so, at €80,000, registered in December 2020 at just €80,000.

It's back for sale now in a quite different market in any case, after its ‘interim’ owners who themselves had bought to renovate did some work, mainly stripping/clearing out. 

At some stage in the recent past the main house was reslated, windows were replaced with double glazing and there’s a replacement front door.

But other than that weatherproofing, all of the inside needs TLC and warming up, with much original wood paneling and ceiling sheeting aplenty.

It has a main living room, narrow family room, each with open fireplaces, lean-to to the back, two dormer bedrooms plus bathroom, and outside is a stone store and a small, standalone stone shed.

The three acres with this roadside property is a bonus, very natural, with lots of tree varieties and a small stream, and the pier by the quite sheltered bay by a crook in the road at Kilcatherine is busily used by fishermen and pleasure craft alike, rising and falling in synch with the seasons.

VERDICT: Third time lucky? Almost certain to be bought as a full-time home by next owners who won’t be afraid of a bit of work, and who’ll have the €50k grant aid prospect to spur them on to further spending, post purchase.