Auction scene gets even more activity and exposure as agency adds multi-location Spring land auctions to a spread of sales methods

Moving in on the land auction scene with a strong first farm day out is Irish estate agency and franchise operators Sherry

FitzGerald, with their first ever Spring land auction, simultaneously at several different locations on April 14.

It will follow a week after the group’s sixth commercial property auction, inaugurated since last summer.

This April 7th auction has 18 lots up for sale, and now a date of May 19 was confirmed yesterday for a further round of auctions, spanning land, industrial buildings and even some one-off houses.

There are 18 lots offered early April, with the most valuable lot an investment at the Athy Business Campus,Kildare, let to the OPW at €90,00 pa. The block is guided at €1.1 million.

Also in Kildare is a 103 acre land bank at Castledermot, guided at €950,000, while 35 acres at Drinagh, Wexford have an AMV of €400,000.

In Munster, 19 acres at Rocklow Road, Fethard, Tipperary have an AMV of €290,000, while a slightly smaller offer, some 17 acres, is guided at €165,000 at Glasha, Dromanane village, Mallow in Cork.

There’s 23 acres at Tuam, Galway, guided at €180,000, and several smaller Wexford lots, at prices as low as €30,000 for 3.4 acres near Enniscorthy.

Also in the mix are warehouses, retail units and several houses, including one at Dunquin, Kerry, guided at €195,000.

Meanwhile, on the land front, regions with the highest growth rates in 2015 were the South-East and the West at 4.3% and 4.0% respectively, followed by the South-West at 0.8%, said Sherry FitzGerald, gearing up for land auction action now too as a group.

The Mid-East experienced the largest fall at 1.6% during the twelve month period, ‘though other regions remained relatively stable, and values in the Mid-East stabilised in the second half of the year.

According to the agency, land parcels in excess of 100 acres, witnessed increased demand during the year,and residential farms rose on average by 2.6% in 2015, down from a 5.6% increase recorded in 2014, in line perhaps with some moderation in house prices generally, it’s suggested.

DETAILS: www.sherryfitz.ie