REAL ESTATE Alliance has bravely earmarked spring for its next bumper property auction. Their last one in May was an attempt to rally the market, but while the ballroom at the Shelbourne Hotel was packed, just six of 61 properties sold under the hammer with a further 10 selling either just before, or just after the auction.

Their next mass auction was scheduled for November but REA decided not to go ahead because of the upcoming Budget, the lack of suitable properties, and the lack of access to finance for potential purchasers.

Whether it will actually happen in spring remains to be seen, but undeterred, property-sourcing company Buyers Brokers are planning to put potential buyers through their paces in the Radisson Blu Hotel on November 27th with a fake auction.

Last week, they held a property seminar and say it was clear that many of those in the room had never attended a property auction and were intimidated by the very idea of it. “The intention was to empower them by telling them the risks involved, but it had the opposite effect. None felt prepared to take on a room of competitors to partake in the bidding process and the level of preparation in advance was certainly seen as off-putting,” says Carol Tallon of Buyers Brokers. We’re not surprised people have lost their auction bottle – there have been so few of them lately that they’ve forgotten what to do.

The company is holding the training auction to get buyers ready for the spring. “I really feel that this is what the market has been waiting for,” says Tallon, who acknowledges that hesitation in the market isn’t just down to auction jitters, but says “there are lots of things putting people off, but we hope this will help open up a demand that is there”.

She says buyers will have to prepare in advance, research the properties in question “and apply several different methods of property valuation to determine the market value and compete with other buyers for the same property. The catch is that each participant will be on a budget. The auction will be run by a professional auctioneer unassociated with our business, using real properties.”

We hope all their training isn’t wasted if the bumper auction doesn’t happen in the spring.

Anyone interested in attending can email caroltallon@buyers brokers.ie.