Nothing ventured, nothing gamed at €1.3m fun-filled family home whopper

THERE are buyers out there for very large houses, stacked to the gills with games, fun and sport, a swimming pool and more tech connections than you could shake a stick or a gaming Wii remote at.

The only problem in the sale of Grey Stone, in Cork’s Kilcully, is that the perfect buyer profile for this property is now the vendor. So, similar buyer wanted?

Up for sale with a €1.3 million guide is this 8,000 sq ft+ family home, built in 2006 and with four levels of accommodation over basement, complete with a remarkable circular stairs, internal lift, private spa-like facilities and a 10m indoor pool.

Add in the fully accessible attic rooms and there’s 905 sq m/9,750 sq ft of house – and that measurement excludes the bright basement level with part-glazed roof section plus plant room.

Grey Stone last featured here in 2020 when it had a €1.5 million price tag, being sold on behalf of Cork developer and builder Paul Forde, who made his own trade/move to his Botanika development on the city’s Blackrock Road, keeping the largest site there for his top-end-of-the-market switch across the city.

The Price Register lists it as 1 Gleann Chuille and shows it fetching €1.29 million by 2022, bought at the time by a Corkman with roots in the north of the county and with a second home in Myrtleville, by the sea.

Aged in his 30s and involved in the financial side of the highly lucrative gaming industry and e-sports sectors as a venture analyst, and internationally mobile, he’s now unexpectedly moving to Cascais, oft described as ‘the Portuguese Riviera’, but will still keep his Cork connections – maybe not the hardest of lifestyle choices?

What he bought a few years ago was premium-build quality from top to bottom. “The quality is off the scale,” says selling agent Lawrence Sweeney, of Savills. “I had a look into the eaves and even the extract ducts are on another level in aluminium, multiples of the cost of the usual plastic ones – there’s just money spent on the best of stuff throughout.”

Well, it was built at the height of Celtic Tiger times, by a residential developer, for his own growing family…

Today, it has been taken to an even higher level in terms of connectivity, with Starlink satellite internet supporting high-tech lifestyle and business needs. The large basement

has been handy for its “uninterrupted space for VR headsets and equipment,” says the vendor (it’s also nearly big enough for a padel tennis court!) and holds a pool table among other fun and games items that don’t all need a VR headset.

Other attractions for the owner were the ground-floor swimming pool and sauna, along with the wide array of day rooms with some 3,900 sq ft at ground alone.

The 2,300 sq ft first floor is home to a balcony and five en suite bedrooms, with the main one also having a large walk-in closet. The circular stairs are a real scene stealer here and open to the attic, where there are two large multi-purpose rooms plus a further bathroom.

A carpentry crew came from the Netherlands to do the central core stairs and they are so broad that it means several bedrooms off it also have curved walls.

Design is by Cork architect James Leahy who regularly ‘did’ one-off homes with complicated roof and glazing shapes but, funnily enough, Grey Stone wasn’t one of the most challenging around Cork!

West-facing at the back with lots of glazing, the expansive stone-finished home is on an enclosed site (handy for keeping a family’s pampered pooch safe and secure) of 0.9 of an acre, with sunken seating area in a corner. It has a 50 sq m detached garage too – Teslas anyone?

Other tech touches and services include heat recovery and filtered ventilation, underfloor heating with both air-to water heating and back-up gas central heating, a monitored alarm and CCTV, as well as a mesh wifi system with ‘Musk-have’ Starlink delivery from the ether.

Oh, and the property has not one, not two, but three robotic lawnmowers, to be sure that not a blade of grass gets out of hand.

The departing owners say changes in work and lifestyle have led to spending a large proportion of their time in Portugal “so the opportunity arises for another family to make this truly amazing property their family home”.

Auctioneer Lawrence says viewers and eventual buyers may well be similar in profile to his vendors or could be relocating and looking for a truly high-end home on the outskirts of the city, on a private site but not remote, with no shortage of space and the chance to work remotely with the fastest broadband speeds.

Equally, it may suit those who have mobility issues, with the therapeutic supports of a swimming pool and sauna and internal lift access serving all four floors (the lift needs to be commissioned and certified as it hasn’t been used by the current occupants.)

Listing now this week for his gaming venture analyst vendor with a €1.3m AMV, only marginally above its last transaction of €1.29m Mr Sweeney adds: “You simply couldn’t build to this size and quality for twice the asking price: “It would probably cost you €3million to build this today,” he reckons.

• VERDICT: Nothing ventured, nothing gamed.