AUCTIONS HAVE been thin on the ground this year with just a handful held in the capital since September. However, in Blackrock, Co Dublin, one private treaty campaign – for a house needing complete renovation on Prince Edward Terrace, Carysfort Avenue was so successful in recent weeks that the selling agent, Peter Kenny of Colliers Jackson-Stops, had no option but to conduct a private auction to establish the highest bid.

The house, which has a sitting tenant in its ground floor flat and a coach-house workshop that is also tenanted, was something of a “can of worms” says the agent. However, its great location and Georgian good looks attracted no less than six bidders and dozens of onlookers at the auction last Friday where it sold for €785,000, just shy of the original asking price of €800,000.

It goes to show that while there are buyers out there they are not prepared to pay over the odds. Nama take note.