Investment opportunities rife at Irish auctions

More than 1,000 properties have been sold at auction in Ireland since January, with noticeably strong interest from investors.

Well attended auctions in Cork, Limerick, Dublin and Galway, held by the likes of DNG, Sherry FitzGerald, Allsop, ODJ, REA, GW2 and i-am-sold, have bore witness to keen bidding with strong interest in residential and commercial investment properties, with success rates generally varying from 60% to 80%.

“We are bang in the middle of auction season and there is no better insight into the health of the market than by watching the results coming out of the auction rooms around Ireland,” said Robert Hoban, commercial director and auctioneer at Allsop.

“While the make-up of catalogues is predominantly residential, it is encouraging to see the growth in the number of commercial properties being offered under the hammer,” he added.

Looking at the results of the auctions that have taken place so far this year, it would appear that investment properties remain the strongest sellers at auction, followed closely by land and then owner-occupier stock.

Hoban continued: “The investment lots with most bidders were tenanted residential investments, city centre apartments, multi-family apartment blocks, commercial properties with blue-chip tenants and industrial lots, either vacant or tenanted. In fact the demand for industrial property at auction acts as a nice barometer for the economy, given the correlation with the SME sector.

“At Allsop, we saw a remarkable 32 out of 34 industrial units trade since January for a combined value of €8.1m, returning an average 23pc premium on reserve price. Two years ago, investor demand was stronger than that of the owner occupier, however, the reverse is now true, with most units being targeted by business owners or tenants in situ.”