€16,000 at auction for Thurles farm

The last auction of the year for Cashel Marts took place last week at the Horse & Jockey Hotel. This concluded their weekly series of auctions.

Up for grabs was a 98-acre residential holding at Leugh, near Thurles, that was split into four separate lots.

According to auctioneer Alison De Vere Hunt, the auction was very well attended, with about 40 people present, including bidders, solicitors and other interested parties.

She described it as “a wonderful farm in four blocks, and less than four kilometres from Thurles” and offered the farm in separate lots before offering the entire holding.

“There’s an attractive bungalow residence with mature gardens that was being sold on the 14 acres, which also includes the old farmyard.

Then, there are approximately 50 acres in one block, a 20-acre block that has a derelict house on the land. and a 14.75-acre block of grassland.

The holding is close to Thurles Racecourse, a course where racing takes place in all kinds of weather, which is an indicator of the soundness of the land quality in these parts.

In most cases where a property is split into lots like this, one would predict that the best overall price would be achieved by lots rather than offering it entire.

In particular, the parcel with the bungalow would have been expected to carry the day. A tarmacadam driveway leads to the good quality four-bedroom home with 155 square metres of interior living space. Another factor was the proximity of Leugh National School.

As it was, however, the highest bid for the property came when it was offered in its entirety.

The holding was conservatively given a price guide of €1.2 million.

On the day, this was comfortably exceeded, and the hammer eventually went down at a figure of €1,580,000.

This represents €16,100 per acre, a very strong price that exceeded expectations.