Town and Country: what you can get for €395,000

Address: 46 Ardmore Drive, Artane, Dublin

Agent: Gallagher Quigley

This four-bed semi has a living room with marble fireplace, dining room and kitchen (with doors to the garden) downstairs, and the bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. At the back is a self-contained extension, with shower room, reached via double doors from the dining room. The east-facing back garden has a lawn and side entrance.

Good: Gardens front and back

Seven houses that turned a tidy profit in 2017

---

How to get your house ready to party

---

Lofty city living in two apartments in Temple Bar and Rialto

---

Bad: The relationship between house and garden is disturbed by the sparsely windowed rear extension

Address: The Black Oak, Lahinch Road, Miltown Malbay, Co Clare

Agent: DNG O’Sullivan Hurley

This former restaurant on the Wild Atlantic Way has five bedrooms and measures 354sq m (3,810sq ft). It retains its commercial kitchen and toilets on the ground floor, but all or part of the property could be made residential. There is a reception area with fireplace, two interconnected dining rooms with a fireplace and windows overlooking Liscannor Bay, along with double doors to the exterior. On the first floor are five bedrooms, two with en suites, and a reception area with fireplace and views of the ocean. The 2.5 acres of land includes lawns, gardens, a drive, parking and a block-built shed. BER C1.

Good: Lots of interior space and a great location by Liscannor Bay

Bad: A plethora of pitches makes the roofscape and upper rooms unnecessarily fussy