Co Waterford sale could be worth close to €1.6m
The farm was touted pre-auction at €1.3m, but it seems likely the land will make a record-breaking €16,000 per acre, despite all the lots not being sold (one is still in negotiation), according to Eamonn Spratt of Property Partners Spratt.
He offered the Toortane farm to a packed and buzzing auction attendance of over 100 on Friday, initially seeking bids for lots. These comprised 33.86 acres of tillage ground; 57 acres of grassland; and the period property house with 7.5 acres. When a cumulative price of €1.2m was reached, the agent took instructions. At that stage, the 57-acre lot was put on the market, having been bid up to €650,000, and it was eventually knocked down to a local Lismore farming family at €815,000. The €14,298 per acre indicated the quality of the grassland, says Spratt. He continued with the other lots, but when the 33.86 acres failed to rise above €335,000, it was withdrawn, and negotiations are ongoing on this, at substantially more than the auction figure.
The house and seven acres lot was also withdrawn, having reached bids of €350,000, but was sold on Friday night for close to the guide price, according to the agent — which indicates a result close to €400,000.
Eamonn Spratt says he is very pleased with the result, adding that interest in the Toortane property came from the US, Britain, and the continent, as well as locally and nationally.
He was however, disinclined to specify sale prices: “All that I will say is that if you take what we have sold and signed up, and where we are on the other, we’re currently in the region of €16,000 per acre.
“The sale is a genuine reflection of the quality of the ground and the attractiveness of Lismore as a location and the present outlook on farming. Those three ingredients operated to create a successful auction process.”
Eamonn Spratt is the third generation to sell this Toortane property — his grandfather first sold the land in 1967, for considerably less than Friday’s result.
