Homely two-bed apartment right in the centre of Cork City

Sat, 03 Apr, 2021 - 10:00

Tommy Barker

“THEY’VE made a proper home of it,” says the selling agent of the central Cork City apartment at 20 Copley Hall, for sale with a €275,000 price tag, and where the buyers might get the chance to buy some of the at-home furniture also.

The two-bed, c 710 sq ft apartment is in Copley Hall, designed by Scott Tallon Walker architects and between Anglesea Street and South Terrace. It's a stone’s throw from City Hall and also from where University College Cork is set to build a new business school for up to 4,000 students on the old Brooks Haughton site in the next year or two.

Copley Hall was developed by Howard Holding on a small site behind an office block it also delivered and which housed Cork’s Anglo Irish Bank for a while too. It is also very close to the School of Music, the courthouse and Aldi at the Elysian. Occupying the ground floor of Copley Hall, meanwhile, is the National Driver Licence Service, a call-to spot for new drivers’ licenses and renewals.

Leaving Cork City, the vendors of No 20 Copley Hall have been in situ for about five years. As one of them has an artist in the family, there’s an engaging mix of art and other display items in this third-storey apartment, which even from photo images has a feel of a non-rental and of something more rooted.

There’s one basement-level designated parking spot with No 20 for one car, plus space for a bike, and the occupant-friendly unit also has storage in its reception/hall. Its only outdoor space/connection is a Juliet-style balcony off the living section.

One of its two bedrooms is en suite, and the main bathroom also has a shower. Other than that, it’s pretty open plan, with the living room connecting to the kitchen, which has white units, topped with black granite.

Auctioneers Ann O’Mahony and Stuart O’Grady of Sherry FitzGerald say the block is very well managed and includes some three-bed units at ‘the sharp end’ of the white-rendered block.

No 8 Copley Hall is also currently on the market — a two-bed with a €295,000 AMV — via agents Casey & Kingston.

The Property Price Register shows 19 sales there, with the highest price in the past decade set two years ago at €296,000 for No 25, one of only three showing to have sold so far over €200k. Annual service charges are in the region of €1,300 pa.

VERDICT: Tidy and homely unit in small, well-run development that’s as central as they come.