Nice areas in West Cork

Shauna677

Enquiring for a friend. He's looking to buy a property to live in, in either Innishannon, Bandon or Clonakilty. Housing appears scarce in the area. He's not from the area but loves the beach walks in inchadorney and the relatively easy commute to the city. Is there any posters here who lives in any of these towns, what would you recommend. He's a single guy.

Balmed Out

Live in Clonakilty. Great town, no housing supply whatsoever. I love it but if I were single I'd probably stick to the city as the dating pool is gonna be small.

JP Liz V1

Clonakilty or Rosscarbery is lovely, not sure if many properties there though

Faith

Clonakilty has very little housing stock and it's expensive. Innishannon and Bandon would probably be more affordable and a shorter commute into the city. Lots of older, poor quality housing in those areas though.

East Cork is definitely cheaper and has plenty of beaches and coastline too.

markodaly

Clonakilty and Roscarbery housing is almost on par of the City, which is a bit nuts. These places could well be affected if any downturn happens and WFH gets eaten away. They are nice areas though and not too far from the city (a 45 minute and 60 minute commute respectively)

It depends on what he has in the bank as well and what he is looking for? A 1 bed apartment vs a 5 bed detached house on a bit of land.

Shauna677

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119543059#Comment_119543059

Clonnakilty is definitely out of his price range, really mad prices there now and little availability. Hes looking for a two bed house with small garden with a budget of approx 200k. At that price range there are some G rated places in Bandon. Skibbereen is little better price wise. He's going to have to go back to the drawing board.

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119543925#Comment_119543925

200k wont buy a lot in West Cork.

You will be able to get something alright, but it will be older, small, and remote.

Faith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119543925#Comment_119543925

Just for context, people I know were recently searching for a house under 270K anywhere near the coast in Munster (with transport links, which complicated things slightly) and they ended up buying in Connaught as they just couldn't get the value in Munster. So many properties in that range were in need of total renovation, massive upgrading, etc.

Looking on daft, there's only 83 min 2 bed houses with a BER rating of at least D2 in all of Cork, and most of those are places like Youghal, Mallow, Fermoy, Charleville.

Shauna677

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119546461#Comment_119546461

Yeah i noticrd that too, its simple galling for him to have to fork out 200k hard earned cash after years and years of saving then having to fork out another 100k min to get the houses up to some sort of decent standard.

Fermoy and Charleville would be ruled out immediately. Mallow is central enough to Cork but its very tired looking place, it just leaves Youghal, whilst a nice historic town with lovely beach and arcitecture, it just doesnt have that wow factor, the town is lacking the exuberant community feel of Clonakilty. I was there recently in high summer and the place was deserted apart from the groups of ukrainian women and kids who are currently housed there. They looked bored, were mostly on their phones and sitting on benches. I actually felt sorry for them, dislocated, so far from home, in an alien, isolated seaside town miles from anywhere.

notAMember

West Cork is hugely popular, it's a tourist hub and has a large amount of holiday homes. People flock there for the natural beauty of the region.

As with any desirable holiday location, it will be as pricey as city center. Clon, Rosscarbery, Bandon and Innishannon are are great towns. But as everyone else thinks so too, that pushes up the value.

North Cork and East Cork definitely don't have the same celebrity neighbour vibe as West Cork. Galling as it may be, your friend will be competing with Jeremy Irons, Graham Norton, David Puttnam, Keith Floyd, Sinead Cusack etc.

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119555003#Comment_119555003

In fairness, West Cork is huge. Bigger than most counties in Ireland and there are lots of houses there.

True, it's one of the more pricer areas of rural Ireland, but unless you want to buy a castle or a detached house with ocean views, you can still get value there. You just have to compromise.

Faith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119555003#Comment_119555003

I think Keith Floyd stopped being competition quite a few years ago!

notAMember

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119555042#Comment_119555042

D'oh! Aww. Wish he was still around though.

Ubbquittious

I have noticed that the one part of west cork that used to be kind of cheap (the general drimoleague/dunmanway/kealkil area) is after getting mad expensive in recent months.

Balmed Out

Dunmanway has really improved with the pool, playground etc in recent years. I always felt it had a dreary look about it but no more.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119698615#Comment_119698615

The centre was always attractive in a peaceul way. I used to trade at the market the market there years ago.

BailMeOut

Ballydehob may be one of the coolest towns in West Cork right now. If it's not crazy expensive it will be so might be worth checking out.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119701425#Comment_119701425

And Schull... Both lovely.

ballyharpat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119551092#Comment_119551092

Even in Killarney, most of them are like that, Tralee also, most of them come from cities so are more into city living than availing of parts of nature that are available to enjoy.

Shauna677

Ballydehob is simple too far from the city as is Schull. Here's hoping prices in Clonakilty/bandon will fall back some bit in the coming months .

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119714668#Comment_119714668

Clonakilty/Skib you have all the pressure from the AirBNB scene, City slickers wanting to let out their bohemian side, poshies from UK/Dublin with Teslas buying holiday homes so I don't see prices coming down soon. Bandon is a bit of a kip so you might have a bit of luck there particularly if you head towards Enniskeane direction

Shauna677

Cheap in Ballydehub, I think not, €200,000 search brings up this little gem, https://www.daft.ie/for-sale/detached-house-ballybawn-west-ballydehob-co-cork/3618843

needs a bit work for sure :-(