Auction a damp squib as only two lots sold

THE auction offering of 65 discounted Irish properties was as damp a squib as the day outside was a washout.

Just two of the 65 lots — an acre in Kerry and 10 acres of west Cork land — were knocked down “under the hammer” at Cork’s Radisson hotel. But, even at that, the top bidder on the land failed to sign contracts, leaving just one “sold at auction” result.

It left the agents talking to one of two underbidders, a man with a pram and two small children, in the hope of selling 10 acres of land at Leap, West Cork, with its planning for horticultural use and polytunnels for €68,000.

The only success in live auction bidding was a scenic acre of land at Dún Chaoin, Co Kerry, fancied by three bidders and selling for €26,000.

Its buyer, a north Cork man aged about 40, declined to be identified, but said it would prove to be a good investment, even over 10 to 15 years.

“I don’t think it’s a bargain, it would have been at €20,000, not so much at €26,000,” he said, describing his newly acquired acre (without planning permission, but near other houses) as “beyond spectacular”.

In all, there were bids on a dozen or so properties but most were well short of declared maximum reserves, so they were withdrawn from the GMAC property sale.

Auctioneer Tom McCarthy, who spent three tough hours in front of a room of up to 200 attendees (many of them other estate agents and the merely property-curious) admitted to “disappointment” at the reaction putting it down to “a lack of liquidity”. He said they’d persevere and try again in September but would be advising clients to take on board the lessons from Munster’s first low-cost property auction. For that, read even lower reserves and price expectations.

Unlike Dublin’s Allsop/Space auction in April, when 81 of 82 lots sold under the hammer for banks and receivers, yesterday’s auction was of privately owned homes, sites and shops, along with a handful of Urlingford, Co Kilkenny, houses being sold for a builder.

There for a bargain was Borris-in-Ossory man Martin Kelly and his wife Angela: “I made good money in bad times before, back in the 1970s, but I never borrowed what I couldn’t repay. Back then, there was no debt, though. I blame the banks for all this, giving out stupid money to stupid people.”

Now, Martin reckons we’re close to the bottom of the slump: “It will turn, everything turns,” said the Co Laois man.

Others reckoned too many of the properties were in secondary locations, and still too dear. “They weren’t distressed sellers, prices have to be rock-bottom to sell,” said one.

Three of the 65 GMAC lots from 10 counties sold prior to the auction, and two more sold immediately after the auction — making a grand total of six lots selling, for a total of €510,000. They were a five-bed, 2,100sq ft detached home in Urlingford for €180,000; a townhouse in Cashel, Co Tipperary, for €79,000; and a bungalow at Rylane, north Cork for €157,000; while selling after auction were a 0.4 acre site at Hospital, Co Limerick, for €23,000, and a site in Emly, Tipperary with planning for 12 terraced houses, making €45,000.

Picture: A section of the attendance studies the catalogue at the GMAC property auction at the Radisson Hotel, Little Island, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan