Petite home makeover at €330,000 city pad should attract first time buyers 

IN the year since the owner of this dinky city centre home bought it, he’s transformed it from a fairly down-at-heel property to an infinitely more habitable urban pad.

A drab facade has given way to a fresh-faced look, and a scrappy, dated interior has been contemporised and upgraded. From the inside out, you’d be hard pressed to guess that No 111 Industry St dates back to the early 1900s. Homes in the neighbourhood were built as part of a concerted effort by city officials to move working class tenants out of disease-ridden city centre slums and tenements into more sanitary dwellings. 

Cork Corporation funded some projects, such as Madden’s Buildings in Blackpool, while a group called Cork Improved Dwellings Company were active in the South Parish area, including on Industry St. The idealistic group embraced the British philanthropic industrialist belief that a happy worker was a productive worker, with housing integral to such positivity.

Whoever buys No 111 Industry St should be pretty pleased with its proximity to the city centre — it’s just a five-minute walk from St Patrick’s St. They’ll like the idea too of being part of a neighbourhood in the throes of regeneration, thanks largely to the vision shown by traders and the Presentation Nuns on nearby Douglas St, where the former convent at Nano Nagle Place (pictured below) is now an award-winning tourist destination, adjacent to the new Cork Centre for Architectural Education.

As No 111 has been owner occupied and is not thus subject to a rent cap (it was vacant for some time before the current owner bought it in October 2023), it’s likely to attract investors as much as first-time buyers, particularly as the renovation work is done. This included new plumbing and wiring, the installation of a new gas combi boiler, a new roof on the rear extension, new double-glazed windows, and new doors throughout, a new kitchen, new flooring, new fascia and soffits, improvements to the rear yard and internal dry lining.

 The improved insulation, new boiler and new windows helped achieve a solid B2 energy rating, which equates to more favourable green mortgage rates.

Prior to the house being in its current ownership, it had an adjoining garage, which is now a stylish, one-bed apartment. Prior to the garage being added in the 1970s, the owner believes there was an archway that gave rear access to the houses on the road. This rear access had been used by the builders, the owner believes, and when they finished building, people on the row each took their own little patch of back yard/garden. To the rear of No 111, a small courtyard has been smartly finished.

Inside the house is smartly presented too, with a small living room to the front and stylish kitchen to the rear, with a utility and refurbished bathroom beyond it.

A spiral staircase leads to two overhead double bedrooms, with great city views through the front windows.

Selling No 111 is Johanna Murphy of Johanna Murphy & Sons who says the 840 sq ft house is “just like a dollhouse, perfect, in excellent condition, just the right size for city living”.

Her guide price is €330,000.

Living VERDICT: Ideal for a first time buyer, investor or downsizer. Turnkey home in up-and-coming part of the city.