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.

“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.