Price is right for house hunters

THE country’s first major fire-sale of repossessed properties seems to suggest there is some life left in the property market ... if the price is right.

Almost €14.5 million of repossessed properties were sold over five hours at the packed auction yesterday where bidding occasionally became frenzied — with one successful bid even coming from the street outside.

Over 1,000 people packed into the ballroom of the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin for the auction of more than 80 repossessed properties which went under the hammer under the eagle eye of auctioneer, Gary Murphy of British estate agency Allsop.

Most of the lots had been repossessed by lending institutions from borrowers who had bought at the height of the Celtic Tiger’s property boom.

The auction comprised a mixture of both residential and commercial properties, with more than half located in Dublin and the remainder spread around the country, including a number of properties in Galway, Portlaoise and Carlow.

At one stage, gardaí were even forced to warn the event’s organisers that they would close down the auction for security reasons as the crowd looking to gain entry had spilled out onto the road.

The first lot was a fair barometer of the whole auction as a first-floor studio apartment in Dublin’s Temple Bar which opened at €60,000, quickly reached its reserve of €80,000 before being sold in about five minutes for €120,000.

Several two-bedroom apartments located on the outskirts of Portlaoise which carried a reserve of €35,000 all fetched in excess of €60,000 — one of which was sold to a bidder out on the street.

Large numbers of people also packed into nearby pub, Doheny & Nesbitt’s where a live video link of the auction was relayed to clients.

The most expensive property for auction — a four-bedroom mews in the upmarket Dublin suburb of Ballsbridge – failed to reach its reserve price of €600,000 and was knocked down for €550,000.

However, a block consisting of six apartments and three commercial units in Wexford town with a reserve of €210,000 attracted much interest from investors, eventually being sold for €560,000.

The cheapest property was a three bedroom semi in Mullingar, Co Westmeath which sold for €30,000 — nearly €10,000 above its reserve.