Househunters will a-spire to professionally decorated €625k Steeplewoods home

AS A NATION fixated on property prices, with a particular zeal for keeping tabs on the value of our neighbours’ homes, there’s no more useful tool than the Price Register. It’s so much easier to track the value of your own home from the comfort of your own home.

In a new development, the best yardstick for measuring how your house is doing is early re-sales. There’s been just one to date in Steeplewoods, an upmarket development off the Carrigrohane Rd. Now, a second home has returned to market, guaranteeing much virtual curtain twitching.

No 24, on the market with Norma Healy of Sherry FitzGerald, is a four-bed semi, which, like the rest of Steeplewoods, has been done to a very high spec.

 Its owners raised the bar even higher by bringing in interior designer Valerie Hogan of Hogan Interiors. Striking orange wallpaper at the top of the stairs adds colour and texture; sparkling salamander wallpaper adds oomph to the guest loo; unique light fittings — such as recycled plastic lampshades on the landing — were sourced at considerable expense.

“My parents had used Valerie and she had the idea of bespoke lighting in each room, so we went with that,” the owners say, adding that the next owners will inherit those expensive light fittings.

The Celtic Interiors kitchen is above spec too, with thousands more than the allowance spent on it. Worktops and windowsill are double thickness quartz.

It’s a bright, open-plan space, with room for dining, and a cosy living area that opens to the rear garden and patio via French doors.

The couple living at No 24 bought their home new in 2018 and hedging they planted in the rear garden is mature now. As they got into the 32-home scheme in an early phase, their house has a chimney and inset solid fuel stove (later phase homes do not have this). However their home is so warm, they have no great need for the stove.

“It’s A3-rated, so you will never be cold,” the owners says. An air-to-water heat pump ensures a highly efficient heating system. The front living room, which faces south, is particularly cosy and stylish built-ins, from Stylecraft in Ballincollig, add a touch of luxury.

Thick carpets and expensive curtains and blackout blinds in the upstairs rooms are there to stay for the next owners.

 One of four double bedrooms has been converted into a large walk-in wardrobe; it’s a top job.

“We went to a lot of places because we knew what we wanted and Slide Systems in Little Island were the ones who said they could do it,” the owners say.

They love their home but are trading up now to Cherry Lodge, a 219sq m detached home on Model Farm Rd, that previously featured here.

The guide price for the corner-site 142sq m home they are selling is €625,000.

Ms Healy expects strong demand as Steeplewoods’ four-bed semis have been popular from the get-go. Families trading up are expected to dominate. There are plenty of schools nearby, including popular Gaelscoil Uí Ríordáin in Ballincollig, reachable on foot in 10 minutes. Ballincollig town centre is less than a five-minute drive away. A 24-hour bus service is within walking distance, with pedestrian access via adjoining estates.

VERDICT: Good-looking, energy efficient home, convenient to Ballincollig