City cottage or a country pile: your choice for under €250,000

Primrose Cottage: €235,000

27 Eugene Street, Dublin, D08 K0V8
Primrose Cottage, a two-bedroom, one-storey terraced cottage off Donore Avenue, in Dublin 8, has sold twice in the past three years. It sold in October 2014 for €80,000 and again in April 2015 for €128,500, according to the property price register.

The house abuts properties that are boarded up, and the large site behind it, which was once home to St Teresa’s Gardens, one of the capital’s largest council-flat complexes, is now empty. Up to 540 new social, affordable and private homes have been proposed for the site. As part of the plan these boarded-up houses will be demolished to create a rear entrance to the development.

Primrose Cottage, which has been refurbished, offers 37sq m/400sq ft of space. The front door opens directly into the kitchen, which has just enough room for a table for two and a sofa.

Behind the kitchen is the first of the property’s two double bedrooms. This one has a door opening on to the small yard but no room for storage beyond a bedside locker. A good-size double bedroom to the back has glass doors opening on to the west-facing yard, which should get some evening sun.

A small shed at the back of the cottage houses the washing machine. This space should have been incorporated into the main property, to give the master bedroom an en-suite bathroom or to create clever storage, something that is in short supply.

A buyer might want to reconfigure the layout of the cottage to create a a really smart, central one-bedroom home with good light and privacy. Parking is on-street.

The property, which has a D2 BER, is asking €235,000 through Finnegan Menton.

Tullaghan House: €250,000

Duncarbry, Tullaghan, Co Leitrim, F91 P5F1
In Co Leitrim you can buy a property that is almost 10 times the size of Primrose Cottage – and includes two acres of mature gardens on the county's tiny coastline.

Tullaghan House, a three-bay Georgian detached property, is in the village of Tullaghan. The seven-bedroom, creeper-clad property, built in about 1780, also has a priest’s hole, a courtyard and stone outbuildings that are all derelict but could, with deep pockets, be turned into studio space or holiday rentals.

There are period features aplenty in this listed house, including original tiles and stained-glass panels in the porch and Adam-style fireplaces in the connecting reception rooms. From the bedrooms to the back there are sea views. The gardens have specimen beech and oak trees, and the property is accessed via a winding avenue.

Tullaghan House first came on the market in June 2016, for €280,000, and is now back on the market for €250,000, through Sherry FitzGerald Draper. The house has about 325sq m, or almost 3,500sq ft, of space, and has a lot to offer but needs a full internal facelift, with possibly the same again spent on it, according to agent Niall Draper.

This small corner of the northwest offers a lot by way of lifestyle, though. There’s surfing at Bundoran – this village is practically a suburb of the town, which is about 1.5km to the north – and a thriving arts scene.