Prayers could be answered at Cork’s €775k trade-up 18 Convent Garden

THERE’S been strong price inflation of as much as 50% at Cork’s Convent Gardens since the Glenveagh development Blackrock Villas at the former Ursuline Convent grounds in Blackrock launched in 2019.

Site as it looked – bare – back in 2019 

Case in point is one of the latest sale, of No 9, which sold brand new in 2020 for €525,000 and is a resale at €750,000, according to a Price Register showing as recently as last month. No 9 was a three-storey, five-bed of c 2,200sq ft and had gone to market with a €675,000 asking price.

Similarly, No 13 Convent Gardens in the Blackrock Villas scheme shows on the register as having made €725,000 in 2024 a year earlier, having sold new in 2020 for €495,796.

Now it’s the turn ofNo 18 Convent Gardens to be a resale offer. In contrast to No 9, it’s a more traditional build, a detached four-bed of 1,680 sq ft, in pristine order and with a rear garden already maturing nicely, which may well clinch a strong sale price for its trade-up vendors.

Already maturing gardens a bonus at 18 Convent Gardens Blackrock Villas

No 18 is listed with impressed agent Gretchen Kelleher, of Barry Auctioneers, who quotes a €775,000 AMV for her relocating family of vendors. They were among the earlier buyers here, having bought in 2019 with the Price Register showing they paid €555,000 at the time for their new A2-rated home.

Blackrock Villas was one of publicly quoted Glenveagh Properties’ first forays into the Cork residential market after it paid an unconfirmed €9m for the remainder of the Eden development at the Ursuline Convent grounds in the heart of Blackrock village, with 27 luxury apartments in the former convent and where the very best, No 16, sold for €1.35m last year.

Showhome standard

More mid-market was Blackrock Villas, some 140 houses undertaken by Glenveagh, which is also currently delivering c 274 apartments in Blackrock — one-beds are priced from €233,000, assisted by the Croí Cónaithe scheme.

 Closer to the city centre, Glenveagh is also building the first of over 1,000 apartments on the former Ford distribution site (and ex-Live at the Marquee site) by the Marina in the south docks, having agreed a deal with the Land Development Agency for 337 units there.

Meanwhile, No 18 Convent Gardens is a fully-fledged and more “traditional” entity, with two reception rooms, kitchen/diner, utility, and guest WC.

Hang up your hat – and everything else

 It has four first-floor bedrooms, one of them en suite, plus a family bathroom with bath and shower fitting. Kitchen units and worktops are all white.

There is garden access from the dining area (and from either side externally), with a well-planted back boundary.

There is also a patio, small deck/outdoor dining/seating area, and a wood-effect steel shed.

No 18 has an alarm, and at the front/side there is parking for several cars on a cobble drive, with an EV charging point.

VERDICT: The c 50% price uplift at Convent Gardens means traders-up like €775,000-listed No 18’s have a good leg up for their next step on the notional ‘property ladder’.