This week: Dublin 8

Number 3 Ebenezer Terrace, off Donore Avenue, Dublin 8, is a handsome terraced redbrick which shows how a small one-storey one-bedroom house can be transformed by refurbishment into a fairly spacious modern home. The 900-sq-ft timber-floored two-bed with an attic conversion is for sale by private treaty through Gunne for £130,000.

It is one of quite a wide range of houses - with a wide range of prices - being eagerly sought by first-time buyers in Dublin 8. Attractive turn-of-the-century artisan cottages and redbricks within walking distance of the city centre are still the star attraction for many young professionals, even at the more rundown end of the South Circular Road, and agents in Dublins 7 and 8 say demand is stronger than ever right now. The house on Ebenezer Terrace, just around the corner from Cow Parlour Lane and the area known as the Tenters, has a large, high-ceilinged living room at the front with a centre rose, cornicing and picture rails. The door that opens to the rear yields a real surprise: here is a large kitchen/dining area, leading into a back hall with a glazed atrium, off which open two bedrooms, a double and a single, and a bathroom. The whole kitchen/dining area is painted a fresh yellow, and materials have been chosen with great taste: the kitchen has a stone-tiled floor, the bathroom is floored with handsome turquoise tiles. The walls of the hallway, which leads to a square back garden, are exposed brick. The garden needs to be landscaped, but is large by town standards.

The attic conversion, up a proper timber staircase, is less successful: there are two small store rooms, which could be used as bedrooms, with built-in wardrobes, a shower room, and a gallery looking down on the kitchen/dining area. There are plenty of windows all over the house, making the whole property bright. The conversion was only done a few months ago, and a dishwasher, washing machine, and fitted oven and hob are being sold with the house.

Number 51 Reuben Avenue, over in Rialto on the far side of Cork Street/Dolphin's Barn, is a three-bed two-storey 1,000-sq-ft terraced redbrick built in 1908 in need of refurbishment. It is being sold by Herman White Estates for £110,000.

Two rooms open off the hall to the left; the sitting room at the front has an original cast-iron fireplace with floral tile inset, and the rear living room looks over a decent-sized yard. New owners might well knock these two rooms together, and replace the old-fashioned rear kitchen extension, which has a bathroom off it - there is quite a lot of room to play with. Upstairs, there is a small bedroom on the return, and at the top, a small double and a very large wide main bedroom, the width of the house looking over Reuben Avenue.

First-time buyers who want a house with character close to the city are out in force hunting for homes at the moment. Agents report that since Christmas, demand has shot up dramatically. One, Charles White of Herman White Estates, reckons that inquiries have doubled over this time last year.

This demand will - and has - inevitably driven prices upwards. But it is possible to find houses from as little as £65,000 in Rialto, up to £130,000-plus for houses in the Donore Avenue area. Divided by Cork Street/Dolphin's Barn, this inner city area has been increasingly gentrified over the past decade as first-time buyers move down the South Circular Road looking for a property they can still afford.

Single-storey cottages on roads such as Eugene Street and Fingal Street, bordering on the Fatima Mansions complex in Rialto, are selling for around £65,000 to £70,000. A little further away, on roads such as Reuben Street, handsome bay-windowed two-storey redbricks are commanding £110,000 to £120,000. On the opposite side of Cork Street, in the Donore Avenue area, similar redbricks not far from St Theresa's Gardens are being sold for £130,000 to £150,000-plus. One, at 9 Rutledge Terrace, came on the market recently through Hamilton Osborne King with an asking price now of £175,000.

Why prices should be so different is not entirely obvious. Agents say that the Donore Avenue area has historically commanded higher prices, partly because of its proximity to other well-considered addresses such as Sandford Gardens.

At the end of the day, location - and perception of how safe the location is - seems to be the factor X. (There have been vigorous attempts to sort out a drugs problem in the Cork Street/Dolphin's Barn area as a whole.) In the meantime, cottages around Fingal Street and Eugene Street are becoming popular for obvious reasons: as all agents say - where else could you buy a house so near the city for so little now? Agents such as Martin Tynan, of Tynan Moran, and Peter Kenny, of Gunnes, also say buyers reckon that changes planned for the whole Cork Street area will maintain house values in the future. Work on the new road linking the Coombe to Clanbrassil Street is due to start soon, and already, new developments are springing up on once derelict sites along Cork Street.