Farm sale coaxed over the line
However, in the heel of the hunt, auctioneer Paddy Jordan managed to sell the tillage and grassland farm after auction, for just under its guide price of €1.5 million.
Close to the National Stud and just outside Kildare town, the land is level, top-quality, with excellent road frontage, and a good deal of interest was expected.
The Mooretown auction followed hot on the heels of the sale of Nurney Demesne, a 270-acre tillage farm in one field, which was sold at auction the week before for €2.6 million.
Buoyed up by that sale, Paddy Jordan of Jordan Auctioneers expected to sell — it just took a bit longer than expected.
Bidding opened at €1 million and was continued at €50,0000 per bid by six parties, said Jordan, until it reached €1.4 million.
At that stage, he took instructions, placed the property on the market and asked for further bids, but none were forthcoming.
He tried again, and offers came in dribs and drabs, he says, and negotiations after the property were withdrawn proved challenging.
Suffice to say, that the auctioneer persevered into the last afternoon and eventually achieved a sale.
The price was undisclosed, but was close to the €1.5m guide price.
And, with the stamp duty cut from 6% to 2% in the budget, there was a significant saving of about €50,000 on the property, Jordan pointed out. “It brings to over 1,000 acres of land we have sold throughout 2011, with a stabilisation in prices per acre in the region of €10,000,” said Jordan. “The reduction of stamp duty in the budget was a help, and should encourage more purchasers to get involved in the market in the new year.”
For last week’s sale of Nurney Demesne at 270 acres, and yesterday’s sale of 157 acres, there are plenty of customers with €1,500,000 to €2,500,000 to spend on the right property, notes Paddy Jordan.
