32-acre Waterford holding makes over €20k/acre

The 32-acre farm, sold at auction in Dungarvan, has direct access onto the N72 and is one field, currently in tillage.

Last featured on these pages in the edition of December 8 last, a well-located 32-acre land parcel enjoyed a successful auction at the Park Hotel in Dungarvan, County Waterford, last Friday.

Located in the townland of Gliddane, 3km outside Dungarvan, it has direct access onto the N72 and is one field, currently in tillage. According to auctioneer Éamonn Spratt of REA Spratt in Dungarvan, the farm started out for sale by private treaty but the level of interest made it ideal for public auction.

Eschewing the online option, auctioneer Éamonn Spratt decided on the time-honoured public gathering in one of Dungarvan’s best known hotels.

The dairying sector was always bound to be interested in this piece of land, with the current economic factors encouraging dairy farmers to expand. The pre-auction expectation was in the region of €14,000 per acre.

On the day, the auction room was well attended and a total of 11 interested parties were to put their best bids forward to claim the holding.

“We had 48 bids in total,” says Éamonn. “The bidding opened at €420,000 (at €13,000/acre, it was already close to the price guide) and went up in increments of €10,000 and €5,000 until it got to €495,000 (€15,500/acre). It was then on the market.”

Of the 11 interested parties, the agent says that they were from “both the local surrounding Dungarvan agricultural community and from regional interest, with a couple of enquiries from abroad.”

The final price of €650,000 represents over €20,300 per acre. The purchaser was, Éamonn confirms, from a local dairy farming family.

“It was great to return to the auction room with such a strong start to our 2023 selling season,” said Éamonn afterwards. “When my grandfather Eddie Spratt started in 1938, over 90% of sales were by public auction and it does bring great transparency to the process.”