Launched a tad under the €1m mark earlier in the summer, at €985,000 and just inching above its AMV so far, this Inchydoney island home with the famed Blue Flag, large, golden sandy beach just 100m from it, is expected to be an autumn seller, but, will it surpass the ‘big note?’
Inchydoney’s big stretch of beach and dunes just a short spin out from West Cork’s Clonakilty appears to have just grown, and grown, in popularity over the past decade, and was brought to another level of appreciation in the covid and post-covid times: it offers both lifestyle attraction and work from home options, within an easy strike of Clon, Cork City, airport, and office and business parks for when duty comes calling.
That appeal became even more enhanced this heatwave summer, surely, when the chance of a cooling off dip or two in the sea — or, a surf — was the order of the day.
Inchydoney’s rise in popularity was most clearly evidenced in the exceptional, one-off sale of a compact, older-era chalet style very basic home called Laguna, close to the Inchdoney Lodge and Spa back in 2023. Laguna had carried a launch price of €545,000, and ended up selling for almost double the AMV, making an extraordinary €1.15m within a few short months.
Later, in 2023, another Inchdoney house offer also breached the €1m price mark: that was for the upscale and larger detached home called Tearmann and which made €1.072m.
Tearmann was in walk-in, swim-out order, compared to Laguna which has laid untouched since, with no planning alterations yet sought since its costly purchase price three years ago, by a US-based buyer.
There’s a gulf in terms of quality between those two €1m-plus sales here, and even the wider Clonakilty hinterland has only a half a dozen or so houses that make over that sum too…so what of this home with a haloed address, and privileged setting?
Originally build as a modest bungalow back in 1971, this property on 0.37 of an acre had a two-storey addition grafted on in 1979, bringing its total bedrooms tally to six: two are at first floor level (one with en suite), and four more at ground, one of which is also en suite, and there are two bathrooms, one with bath, one with shower.
In terms of reception rooms, two are on the western end, one with two sets of patio doors to a c 1980s era conservatory/sun room with glorious beach, ocean, and Dunmore vistas, the other is on the gable with double aspect and, behind, is a kitchen/dining room.
Décor and finish-wise, it’s “all of its time”, dated, with lots of build-ins and timbers of various hues, and it has mains services but a poor enough F BER.
Selling agent Con O’Neill of Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill says it’s getting lots of interest, from Dublin, Cork, London and some US inquiries and viewings. It’s under offer, and he expects it to be worked on once in new hands, with scope to improve the energy rating and add more floor-to ceiling glazing, all on a very good-sized and sublimely-set site.
VERDICT: One swallow does not a summer make, nor do two €1m-plus sales three years ago mean every half-decent detached at Inchydoney will put aspiring vendors and homeowners here in the ‘big note’ sale league… but it’s inching that way.
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