At €1.5m, this Cork showhome will set a price record for a new build

WILL the expression ‘first in, best dressed’ be turned on its head in the case of the 2025 sale of 3 Ecklinville — the original showhouse done as the sales propeller for a clearly exclusive scheme of nine new-builds, on Cork city’s Orchard Road.

As a well-dressed show home, visited only by appointment by prospective home-hunters at the upper end of the price scale locally, No 3 certainly did the business, as the Price Register shows the successful sales of seven of the nine, at prices from €1.263m to €1.37m for No 1.

No 6 Ecklinville has yet to show, and No 3, the last remaining, is offered today at €1.495m. At that it’s likely to shade it as the highest price sought, and certain to be paid, for a brand new build in and around Cork for some time.

The year just over is possibly remarkable not just for the fact that Cork saw c 60 sales of properties in excess of €1m, but also for the fact that about a dozen of that number were new homes, spanning Ecklinville; Merton on the Model Farm Road (sales there yet to appear on the Price Register, but some at c the €1.3m mark); Hettyfield Gardens in Douglas (just over the €1m mark at €1.079m for No 9) and on the Well Road.

Continuing the theme of strong sales at proven or ‘good’ addresses, was the sale of three 2,400 sq ft five-bed detacheds at Watersland, Kinsale, with US buyers to the fore in that instance, whilst villas coming along in the next year by Kinsale’s old Mercy convent site via Cumnor will be in the multi-million euro price bracket, be sure of it.

In the city, it was primarily Irish families and relocators buying at and above the €1m mark. Again, clearly it was driven by location, with the greater number in the inner and western suburbs, close to the CUH and Bon Secours for medics and tech types, as well as close to a range of schools and third level colleges for clans looking to the college-going years ahead too.

Looking to 2025, there may not be as many new builds at this sort of price level, at least in and around the city as there have been in ’24.

The further end of the Model Farm Road will have a few, and options might present at Douglas and Blackrock in 2026, where the sale of the SMA religious order’s house Feltrim on three acres made the Register just before Christmas.

Feltrim shows at €3.15m, and the well-kept gate lodge there made a recorded €350,000, so that’s €3.5m for the two residences: the rest of the ground there with clear development potential is likely to have brought the total netted by the SMA closer to the €6m mark.

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Feltrim’s buyer is understood to be a city businessman with a Blackrock Road niche, upmarket apartment development currently in train, but his plans for the stunningly well-set Feltrim (high end? high density?) aren’t yet known.

Meanwhile, the walk-in job 3 Ecklinville is likely to be a Q1 2025 swoop purchase, and could be ideal for a family coming back to live and work in Cork from overseas who won’t need to ship furniture or any belongings other than personal items, as it is offered fully furnished, via agent Michael O’Donovan of Savills, Cork.

Interior fit-out and look is by Dublin-based North Design, with construction by Colm Desmond of CDC Builders, and developers were DOB, associated with a new generation of the O’Brien family, who also as O’Brien & O’Flynn did the Brookfield student village/holiday scheme off Orchard Road nearly 25 years ago in the grounds of Brookfield House.

Its once-large grounds extended far beyond College Road, with fruit farms to the fore for the Jennings family, hence the addresses Orchard Road, and, indeed Ecklinville, named after a variety of apple.

VERDICT: If you have the €1.5m, buying No 3 Ecklinville could be a hassle free purchase: just bring clothes, and stock the fridges.