More house hunters buying at auctions

More and more house hunters are looking to auctions to secure their first home, according to a company that, up to now, has mostly been dealing with distressed properties and those that are the subject of forced sales.

More house hunters buying at auctions

“Our firm has turned a significant corner, witnessing a remarkable increase in the number of private and non-distressed vendors coming to the market,” said Rob Hoban, director of Auctions at Allsop Space which sold €48m in properties at a one-day auction in Dublin last Wednesday.

“When we started Allsop, we were in the depths of recession where nothing was selling, so a lot of the properties were distressed.

“That has all changed, now, and more people are seeing this as a good alternative way to sell.”

Buyers looking for bargains snapped up properties at the latest Allsop Space property auction held at the RDS. They ranged from a derelict mill for €62,000 to a nine-bedroom house for €150,000, More than 1,000 bidders attended the auction which featured 175 properties divided equally between distressed properties being sold on the orders of a bank or receiver, and private sales.

Ten properties sold for more than €1m each.

“We are also seeing a growing number of young couples attending our auctions to buy their first home,” said Mr Hoban.

“We are also getting more small and medium-sized businesses attending to buy vacant premises. That is very encouraging and is a sign of a normalisation of the property market in general.”

A Temple Bar property that’s home to Sin nightclub as well as eight apartments fetched the biggest price of the day at €2.35m, while a block of six two-bedroom flats in Dublin 6 sold for €1.9m.

A Victorian mansion on 30 acres in Killala, Co Mayo, went for €765,000 — around €200,000 more than its reserve, while a four-bed semi in Tuam, Co Galway, fetched €41,000.

A nine-bed former B&B with a four-bed home in its grounds, situated just outside the tourist town of Ballyvaughan, in Co Clare, sold for €150,000, while a derelict mill plus former Garda barracks on five acres of land beside the River Shannon fetched €62,500.

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