But, putting search filters at the other end of the price scale, there are 17 properties with a Kinsale district address price at over €1 million, and/or multiples of it. 

The lower end of the price scale includes sites without planning permission, whilst the cheapest habitable buy is possibly a one-bed apartment in the town, from €175,000, with a two-bed in the same building for €195,000.

At the top-end, the current highest listing is the well-known Ballinacurra House, at €4m after a price reduction, and one of the very latest, Currahoo House, a period home with guest cottage on six acres on the Bandon river near Kilmacsimon Quay, at €2.5m (via Savills). 

Then, there’s quite a cluster in the €1.5m to c €2.5m bracket, including the large family Ferrypoint, on a headland at Rathmore with a €1.75m guide via joint agents Josie Dinneen and Brendan Bowe.

That’s for a c.6,000 sq ft five-bed home with indoor swimming pool, on just over three acres, perfect for an energetic family, they say. (Up river closer to Innishannon, another home the €1.05m Shippool Lodge, also has a swimming pool as well riverbank, plus internally a dramatic, columned library and bespoke finishes). 

Not all buyers have to fish at this upper price echelon, however: the good news is there are brand new houses available in Kinsale itself, at prices from €365,000: that’s for a two-bed townhouse at Abbey Fort, a Hatley Homes development off the Dunderrow/Innishannon road by sports pitches (it’s also associated with Gannons who have substantial complete schemes locally too), with sales directed by Paul Hannon of Sherry FitzGerald.

Abbey Fort has a creche for 90 children: other new home prices there and currently available include larger three-bed mid-townhouses of 1,094 sq ft priced from €435,000, while the traditional ‘staple’ three-bed semi-ds are €485,000/€490,000. Four-bed c 1,377 sq ft end terrace homes, A-rated, there are priced ‘from’ €495,000 at the scheme with 100 sales to date, and with 40 remaining (there’s planning for 86 more homes in a similar mix on another adjacent site just to the north).

 Other than that, new homes locally are pricier: there’s a further launch at old Mercy Convent site due possibly later this year where some very large villa new builds will be in the multi-million euro price bracket. Two other development releases in the past year in the town saw new builds at €1m and upwards.

Agent Josie Dinneen says there’s a real shortage of homes in the second-hand market in the broad €300,000 to €500,000 bracket and as a result “interest in surrounding villages has increased, with properties fetching up to 30% over listing price as demand is high”.

 Also contributing to the shortage of landlords Airbnb’ing their properties in the past several years rather than long-term renting them due, Ms Dinneen suggests, to RTB restrictions and a c.2% rent freeze “and there is little incentive for them to sell due to 33% capital gains tax”.

 That’s despite the high rents that can be commanded locally: those seeking a rental property will find their choices down to single digits right now, with the cheapest looking like a room with patio access for €200 a week, or more typically, houses at rents of €2,000 to €4,000+ a month of the eight currently available: there are ones at far higher rates available, off-market.

And, the difficulty of finding accommodation for staff in the hospitality sector, both season and year-round, has been widely remarked upon: in this case, Kinsale is far from alone in having to deal with the rental crisis.

Back in the sale market, the price bar for existing quality second-hand stock has now moved after Q1 of 2024 to the half-a-million mark, or even €600,000 in some cases, says agent Brendan Bowe: that’s in contrast to a current national average of c €340,000 for homes: Kinsale’s mid-market, for those looking for a detached home of say 1,800 sq ft is now most likely in the region of €750,000+(eg 10 Harbour Heights).  

Also notable in the Kinsale market is the rise of cash buyers, with Brendan Bowe reckoning that 55% of his sales now are to purchasers who don’t need a mortgage or other lending: that’s a jump up from 45% just a year ago, while buyers in the Irish diaspora coming to Kinsale typical have very substantial savings and deposits available to them.

Overseas buyers — both returning Irish and international — see Ireland as politically and economically stable, with an excellent education system and work opportunities, with a lifestyle offer then in the likes of Kinsale layered on top of that, as well as having a climate that’s relatively benign in comparison to other international ‘hot spots,’ both literally and metaphorically.

And, in Kinsale, people are prepared to pay a premium for all of that.