CONSIDERED A dead duck for more than three years, the property market sprang to life yesterday when 81 out of 82 distressed properties were sold in the Shelbourne Hotel – many for well over their reserves.
Though most of the properties auctioned are in Dublin, the buyers came mainly from the country, and the feeling was that they had cash. A total of €15 million was spent in the five-hour auction, which had to be suspended in the first hour because of crowds trying to get in.
London auctioneers Allsop put on an impressive show with flashy pink catalogues and nattily dressed young men and women lined up on the podium behind auctioneer Gary Murphy. Irish in name but frightfully English in delivery, he invited bidders to go “another thousand pounds, sorry euro”.
Word is that he is Allsop’s slowest auctioneer – the company, which specialises in distressed property in the UK, generally gets through its auctions in a fast, businesslike way. Yesterday, each lot was drawn out as long as possible and not everyone appreciated the Anglo overtones. “Making a show of us in front of the world with Sky television out there,” said one onlooker. However, others were more upbeat: “Who cares about the IMF? This is the real market economy in full flow,” said one gleeful punter.
Bidders arrived early to bag one of the 350 seats inside. By the time the auction got under way at 12.15, the room was packed and there were another hundred or so queuing outside. By lot 9, the auction had to be interrupted when gardaí objected to crowds blocking the footpath. A two-bed apartment in Portlaoise was sold to a bidder on the street for €61,000.
The first lot of the day, a studio apartment in Temple Bar, made €126,000, while a city centre penthouse, on the market three years ago at €1.3 million, sold for €345,000. It was bought by an Englishman for his daughter who is studying at the College of Surgeons.
Spotters moved through the crowd identifying bidders and, when the hammer came down, escorting them from the room to get their deposit cheque and details in a hushed room upstairs that was bristling with solicitors.
The sales rolled on. The mews house in Raglan Lane in Ballsbridge that had a reserve of €600,000 sold for €550,000, to the surprise of one Dublin auctioneer who admitted he valued it last year at €850,000.
If there were bargains to be had they were mainly in the commercial lots such as a premises at Rathgar Road with a betting shop producing €30,000 in rent downstairs and offices upstairs. It sold for €350,000, a 9 per cent return even before the offices are let. A total of €15 million was spent, which, in the old days, wouldn’t have meant much, but in a market that has been on the floor for so long, it was a dazzling success. No surprise then that Allsop and its Irish partner Space are planning another sale for the summer. By all accounts there will be no shortage of stock.
The next auction is scheduled for July 6th. Cancel the holidays and get the cash out from under the mattress.