With prices for three-bedroom houses starting from £103,000 (€130,780), Station Court in Portarlington, Co Laois, presents good value for first time buyers.
Launching this weekend, joint selling agents Hooke & MacDonald and Tom MacDonald of Portarlington have arranged a special train from Dublin at 1.30 p.m. on Saturday to ferry interested viewers to and from the town.
Minutes from the railway station, Station Court is a mixed development of 63 three-bedroom terraced, three-and four-bedroom semi-detached and detached four-bedroom family houses.
Prices for the 1,100 sq ft three-beds start from £103,000 (€130,780); 1,300 sq ft four-bedroom houses are priced from £117,000 (€148,560); 1,340 sq ft semidetached four-bedroom houses are priced from £123,000 (€156,180), and 1,340 sq ft detached houses are priced from £138,000 (€175,220).
As a growing town within the Dublin commuter belt, Portarlington benefits enormously from its location at a rail junction served by the Waterford, Cork, Limerick and Galway lines as well as by train services to Tullamore, Portlaoise, Athlone and Kilkenny.
Some 30 trains stop daily, and average journey time to Heuston Station is 50 minutes. Outside of rush-hour traffic, the journey to Dublin by car takes under an hour. However, as the main artery on the Dublin to Cork and Limerick routes, this stretch of road has earned itself a reputation as the biggest bottleneck on the national network.
Built by Rimford Developments, all the homes have spacious living areas, good standard features and large gardens.
The three-bedroom semidetached and terraced houses have two double bedrooms, both with fitted wardrobes, and one single room. Downstairs there is a sittingroom with bay window feature, decorative fireplace as in the showhouse and double doors to the kitchen/ dining area.
The detached and semi-detached four-bedroom models are similar in layout. The kitchen is large, with maple Shaker-style units and an inbuilt extractor. There is a small utility room off the kitchen and an understairs toilet.
Upstairs there are four bedrooms - two doubles and two singles. Wardrobes are standard as in the show home, as is tiling. The main bedroom has an en suite.
