Mass property auction held

Another auction of distressed properties is taking place in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel today.

A house on Ailesbury Road sold at the Allsops/Space event for €2.325 million after going in with a reserve price of €1.4 million.

The house was undoubtedly the most sought-after lot at the auction, and over the course of seven minutes it went from a starting bid of €1.3 million to its selling price. The winning bid was made by telephone. Similar properties on Ailesbury Road would have sold for in excess of €10 million at the height of the boom.

All told, there have now been 20 properties put up for auction, with only one - a bookmaker's premises in Drogheda - failing to sell. Most properties have exceeded their reserve prices, although one, in Co Kilkenny, sold for €50,000, without reaching the stated reserve of €60,000.

Earlier today, the first property to go under the hammer was an apartment in the Castleforbes Square complex just off Dublin's North Wall Quay. It achieved a price of €148,000, just €6,000 above the reserve.

The second property sold was an apartment at Linden Square off Grove Avenue in Blackrock, Co Dublin. The two-bed apartment fetched a price of €270,000 and had a reserve of €202,000.

The atmosphere at today's auction was comparatively muted, with the event attracting little of the media attention and crowds that the first auction attracted at the same venue in April.

Elsewhere, at a recent mass auction in west Cork by GMAC Properties, only two of 64 properties sold at auction.