From €25,000 to €1.45m: another distressed auction

AUCTIONS:There's interest from around the world in next's week's big sale

DUBLIN’S Shelbourne Hotel is expected to be packed again next Thursday for the second auction of distressed properties to be offered to the highest bidders by auctioneers Allsop/Space.

Most of the 87 residential and commercial properties are being sold by financial institutions and receivers. They include 59 houses and apartments, mainly in Dublin, Cork and Waterford, but also in counties ranging from Laois to Donegal. Apartments already rented have been of particular interest to many people who have checked out the online sales catalogue prepared by the Allsop/Space partnership.

The site has already had more than 60,000 hits, a figure that is expected to grow to over 100,000 by next Thursday. Just over 14 per cent of the enquiries have come from Ireland but there has been almost an equal level of hits from interested parties in the UK, USA, France, Australia, Spain Canada and Germany.

The organisers report a high level of interest in the event following the first sale in April this year when all but one of the 82 lots of apartments and houses sold under the hammer. The lowest priced house on this occasion, a three-bedroom terraced property at Headfort Grove in Kells, Co Meath, has a reserve of €25,000.

However, the highlight of the auction is likely to be the sale of a large Victorian redbrick on Ailesbury Road in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. The end-of-terrace house has a reserve of €1.45 million even though many properties on the road changed hands at over €10 million during the property boom. Number 35 is in need of considerable refurbishment.

Many of the Dublin houses going for sale are priced between €200,000 and €300,000. One example is a four-bed semi at 249 Upper Kilmacud Road, Stillorgan, with a reserve of €275,000.

Also on the southside there are two partially-ompleted semi-detached houses on Killiney Hill Road with a guide of €200,000 for both. One of them is a three-bed, the other a two-bed.

In Dublin 15, the agents have set a guide price of €97,000 for a modern three-storey, four-bedroom house at 13 The Boulevard, Tyrrellstown. Another three-bed home with a marginally higher guide of €102,500 is located at 1 Stepaside Villas, Stepaside.

In Dublin 4, a four-bedroom Georgian house standing two-storeys over basement at 61 Haddington Road, comes with a guide price of €395,000.

In the city centre there is likely to be considerable interest in a tiny terraced house at 25a John Dillon Street, Christchurch, where the reserve is a mere €55,000. It has a floor area of only 27sq m (290sq ft). Anyone looking for a cheap apartment may well take a look at a two-bed unit in Castleforbes Square, off Mayor Street,in the docklands where the guide is €142,000.

Buyers in the market for income-producing residential properties in Dublin are likely to consider a two-bed penthouse in Smithfield Market. The current rent is €14,400, and the selling guide is only €175,000. At Linden Square in Blackrock, a three-bed apartment producing a rent of €15,600 could be knocked down at €222,000. Couples looking for a weekend or retirement home outside of the city might consider a four-bedroom Victorian country house on 2.5 acres at Camolin, Co Wexford. It has a guide of only €250,000.

Investors seeking commercial properties will have a choice of 18, including a string of pharmacies, a betting shop and three pubs. One of the bars, in Portumna, Co Galway, may be picked up for as little as €50,000 (less than what bar licenses were selling for over the past 20 years) and another one in Waterford for €185,000. The best located of the three is The Pint bar at Eden Quay in Dublin city centre which is rented at €78,000 per annum. It has a guide price of €485,000.