Buyers last kick to enter upmarket Botanika
Semi-d purchase cancellation brings buyers 'last chance saloon' to enter upmarket Botanika.
IT seems like No 26 is the ‘last chance saloon,’ for home hunters in Cork if they lost out on a chance to buy into Botanika when the upscale development first launched back in 2017.
The four-bed 1,550 sq ft semi-d (pic, right), set in towards the back of the stunningly finished off scheme on six acres by developers Citidwell within Cleve Hill, is being offered vai agents Cohalan Downing due to a late stage cancellation, with a €595,000 price tag.
The estate of 31 houses (15 of them detacheds) off the city end of the Blackrock Road has all but finished out, at prices from €525,000 to €850,000, with the sales all secured in jig time around November 2017.
All were released at the same time, without a show unit; 60% sold straight away, with the rest following on fast.
As could be expected, a few cancellations occurred, and they sold on again smoothly to those who’d asked to remain on the enquiry list, says estate agent Suzanne Tyrrell of Cohalan Downing Associates.
Knocked off schedule by huge amounts of site works on an initially awkward site above Monahan Road due to sloping topography, and tossed by notorious winter storms as well, Botanika’s now 80% occupied after the first few were handed over by Christmas 2018.
The landscaping’s already taking root, the roads are surfaced and it’s all looking quite the ‘poster child’ for posh Cork houses.
Visually, it has even outperformed the aspirational CGI images used to promote it back in 2017.
Now, nearly two years on, there still hasn’t been a development of this calibre to come to the Cork and Munster market, so would-be buyers coming to view No 26 may be half sold on Botanika ever before they get to the front door of this four-bed ‘last offer.’
That assured and positive first impression is to the good, as once inside, viewers will have to use a tiny bit of imagination to see how No 26 will finish out.
Up to now, it’s been used almost as a site office and builders’ stores... the exact opposite of show unit presentation.
The relatively compact size of most of the type’s four bedrooms might be a surprise to some, but the overall tone of the Botanika development should sell it swiftly enough.
No 26’s buyers will get a €25,000 PC sum to allow them to pick a kitchen, flooring and tiling, says CDA’s Ms Tyrrell.
She (and the developers and neighbours?) can expect to see possible buyers scanning the completed builds, or, even peering in windows if it looks like there’s no-one home, for a look-see as to how these brick and dash homes turn out (the interior of one is shown, left).
The 15 larger Botanika detacheds houses sold from €820,000 to €850,000, and four bed semis sold from €595,000 to €610,000; one larger sold at €650,000, and two three-bed semi-ds sold at €525,000.
Since coming close to final completion in recent weeks, I’ve heard from several people how sorry they are for not knowing about it previously.
"It is a gem of an address now,” says Ms Tyrrell, on the very last leg of sales in the ‘prestige’ development within a walk of Cork city centre.
Once a sale is agreed at No 26, it will finish out pretty quickly, with its first occupants able to move into a finely finished-out development, while no more than a bit of judicious garden planting may be needed to address some overlooking at the rear.
Botanika’s now complete.
