Over €25m of property sold at public auction

More than €25m of property was sold at the latest large-scale public auction held by Allsop Space in Dublin yesterday. A total of 131 lots out of more than 180 properties for sale went under the hammer for a combined total of €25.61m.

The event passed off without incident after a group of protesters, whose demonstration had led to the previous abandonment of an Allsop auction in the Shelbourne Hotel last July, reached an agreement with the auctioneers about the issue of distressed properties.

Members of the group, Friends of Banking Ireland, led by developer, Jerry Beades, had staged a sit-in at Allsop’s offices on Waterloo Road on Monday night in advance of yesterday’s auction.

After several hours of talks the two sides signed an agreement where Allsop has promised it would no longer offer properties for sale where the owners are engaged in a legal dispute with a bank or receiver. In return, Friends of Banking Ireland has agreed that it will not obstruct future auctions held by Allsop.

Around 180 commercial and residential properties were up for sale in the RDS. There was a noticeable security presence outside the venue.

The highest price fetched was €1.9m for three adjoining mixed-use premises on Mainguard Street in Galway. There was only one bidder for the buildings, which currently include a supermarket.

One of the more valuable commercial sites for sale was the North Main St Shopping Centre in Cork which consists of 14 retail units. It failed to attract any bids on a reserve price of €750,000.

The Old Cinema in Charleville, Co Cork was also unsold after it attracted a bid well short of the €95,000 reserve. The Castle Park Hotel in Mitchelstown, Co Cork was knocked down for €150,000 by an unidentified buyer who said it was bought for a group of locals.