Plenty to catch the eye at Allsop Space auction as 221 properties to go on sale

The first Allsop Space auction of the year may not boast very many trophy homes, but for those on the look out for promising business premises and income-producing properties, there’ll still be plenty to catch the eye.

The auction, which takes place in the RDS this Wednesday, will see a number of tenanted commercial lots coming up for sale, with prominent tenants including Next, Argos, BWG Foods, Ladbrokes, as well as government agencies such as the IDA.

Other highlights will include 10 industrial, retail and office buildings located in Dublin, Galway, Mullingar and Monaghan, with reserves set at more than €800,000.

Other notable investment opportunities include 10 retail units being sold in Tralee Shopping Centre with a reserve range of €475,000 to €525,000, and a former Irish Nationwide Building Society in Roscrea with a reserve of €125,000 to €140,000.

Also expected to attract attention is a residential development site in Delgany, Co Wicklow, which is listed at a reserve of €900,000 to €1 million.

Bucolic charm

Alternatively, those looking for bucolic charm may be quite taken with Aclare Lodge, a 19th century property outside the village of Drumconrath in north Co Meath. The lodge is currently split into two houses, and has a reserve of €175,000.

In total, some 221 commercial and residential properties will go under the hammer on Wednesday, with a total reserve of over € 40 million. According to a spokeswoman for Allsop, the level of enquiries about the upcoming auction has been “extremely high”.

Last year, some 1,081 properties sold for a total of €264.5 million through Allsop Space. Robert Hoban, director of auctions, said they witnessed a marked increase in first-time buyers and owner-occupiers bidding at auction in 2014, and this trend is expected to continue this year.

However, after splitting its auction over two days for the first time in December, (with commercial property sold on the first day, and residential assets on the second), Allsop Space is reverting to a single-day auction this time around. The spokeswoman said this is purely because of the “timeline of getting properties in on time”.