Sister buys up brother’s reclaimed home

An emotional Westmeath woman bought back a house for her brother which had been repossessed by the bank.

The auction held by the Merlin Group in the Radisson Blu Hotel saw 16 residential properties and four commercial properties go under the hammer. A sale was agreed for five of the properties, with 13 still under negotiation between vendors and bidders, and three withdrawn due to low bidding.

A house in Carlow attracted the highest bid, selling for €110,000.

However, the real excitement of the auction came towards the end when Orla Mulvey stood up and revealed that she was trying to buy back five-bed detached house in Castlepollard in Westmeath for her brother.

The house was being sold by a financial institution for an advised minimum value of €70,000 and, according to Ms Mulvey, the house was not fully furnished and had no entrance or water. She captured the sale at €76,000 despite competition from two other bidders.

David Byrne, managing director of Merlin Group, said he was pleased with the turnout for the company’s second auction.

“We have gone from strength to strength since our initial property auction. We have doubled our number of properties for this auction to 20 and we look to continue building the business with the aim to see a significant increase in the number of properties in our next auction.”

The Merlin Group said the next property auction will take place on July 25, in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Golden Lane in Dublin 2.