Midleton's €395,000 Windermere is a do-er upper for fans of DIY 

WINDERMERE, a good solid home on Midleton’s Dwyer’s Road, needs upgrades, but the good news is you can live on site while renovating.

That’s thanks to a separate annex, where you can sleep (two bedrooms), eat (a kitchen), perform ablutions (bathroom) and relax (cosy living room). 

The likelihood is a buyer will want to do up the annex too, but it’s absolutely liveable-in while you focus on the bigger task in hand ie upgrading the main house.

Windermer is in need of a new kitchen (scope for further expansion too) and also new windows (BER is E2) but as it’s been vacant for more than two years, the buyer will be eligible for the vacant property refurbishment grant of up to €50,000.

It’s been vacant because the buyer was working overseas and while the plan was to turn it into the kind of home he wanted to live in, work got busier and something had to give. And so Windermere is back on the market, with James Colbert of Colbert & Co handling the sale and he predicts three types of potential buyer: a young couple happy to live in the annex while working on the main house; a family looking for space to house an elderly relative; parents with adult kids who can’t afford to rent, for whom the annex provides an alternative.

Mr Colbert says the buyer will “need deep pockets” but that 146 sq m Windermere is priced to reflect that, with a €395,000 guide price.

“There are six bedrooms (including annex) and it has front, side and rear gardens. You can walk into Midleton town centre in minutes and Dwyer’s Road is a nice, mature, residential area,” the agent says.

Windermere, one half of a semi-d pairing, is on a decent site, with scope to create a children’s play area or vegetable garden to the side and to landscape out back.

VERDICT: WIndermere needs work but the bones are there for a really solid family home, with the added benefit of an annex for extended family, rental income or business use.