Auction interrupted briefly by protester

THE BRISK bidding and jovial atmosphere at the Allsop Space auction were interrupted when a protester heckled Allsop auctioneer Gary Murphy.

Tom McNulty, from the group calling itself the anti-eviction taskforce asked Murphy if he could guarantee that people in the room “won’t be buying ill will with their neighbours and from the people who can no longer afford to keep the property”. Speaking outside the auction room, McNulty said people often get caught up in the frenzy of cheap property and forget there is “a human side to many of these sales and that there are families suffering. Some buyers will be purchasing into communities where there will be nothing but ill will and trouble”.

McNulty’s group staged a low-key protest outside the event and called on Allsop Space to “state clearly if there’s any family property” in the sale. Nearly three-quarters of the properties going under the hammer at the Allsop Space auction were being sold by receivers with a further two being sold by liquidators.

Allsop Space declined to comment on whether any of the remaining 29 properties were repossessed or bank-encouraged sales. Another protestor, who declined to be named, whose family business was being sold in the auction, said he felt he’d been harshly dealt with at a recent High Court appearance, where he defended himself. “It’s like being up against a massive machine.”

Robert Hoban, Allsop Space’s auction director, said he didn’t have a comment to make on the protest. “People are entitled to protest, but what we’re offering is just another method of selling this property.”