Allsop online bidders choose to shop local

Allsop continues its march as a market disrupter on the traditional property landscape. It started four years ago with its clearance house approach to property auctions.

Now its latest initiative – online only auctions – is gaining traction.

The first auction, held in March, was described at the time as a potential game changer, and garnered sales of €6.85 million from 46 out of 65 properties offered for sale.

Last week it hosted its second online auction and recorded a success rate of 80 per cent, with 51 out of 64 properties selling for a total of €6.5 million. The sales take may not be all that different from two months previously, but it’s worth noting that this time around there were 349 bidders registered in advance with a €5,000 refundable deposit on each property – that’s a 70 per cent increase in bidders on the March auction.

The number of bids made throughout the day was 1,477, again a strong increase of 80 per cent. It’s also interesting to note that of the sales made in 15 counties, most of the bidding was locally-based, with two-thirds of properties bought by buyers who lived within 100km of the property purchased.

So it’s clear local bidders are undeterred by the digital sales platform; if anything they seem encouraged by the anonymity of bidding from their own desktops.

The most fiercely contested sale saw a local buyer pip nine others to an apartment block in Doughiska, Co Galway, in a bidding war that lasted two hours and 48 minutes. In the end it sold for €561,000, well above its €300,000 reserve.

With online shopping a regular feature of our lives, it appears property can now be added to the list of things we are happy to buy online.