Allsop/Space auction number 3, a preview – business as usual

Where: The Shelbourne Hotel, 17 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin (map here)
When: Friday 23rd September, 2011 starting at 10.45am with auctioneer’s announcements and Lot 1 will be auctioned not before 11am, my personal view is the auction will finish 3-4pm.
Catalogue: Available to download here as a PDF (registration required) or view online here. 73 lots with maximum reserves of €10.4m (after deducting Lot 31 which has been withdrawn)
Live video streaming from the auction from 10.45am : available here
Live bidding  from 11am : available here
Results from 11am : available here

This coming Friday sees the third auction by the joint venture between local agency Space Property Services and British auction giant, Allsop. The first auction in April 2011 was manic with an overflow of punters/gawkers onto the sidewalk on St Stephen’s Green. The second auction in July was more business-like though the auction room was still packed. Given that auctions of 20 lots in this country used to be described as “mega auctions”, it is funny to see how quickly we have gotten used to Allsop Space running 80-lot auctions.

As for the auction results – in April, 81 of the 82 lots were sold giving a 99% success rate, in July 79 of the 83 lots sold giving a 97% success rate. So what for this Friday?

According to Allsop Space Limited, the new 50-50 joint venture between Space Property Consultants and Allsop LLP, over 1,500 people have inspected this Friday’s auction properties to date and 900 legal packs/contracts have been issued. Figures from Allsop Space show that their website has had nearly 1m page views since the current catalogue was launched representing 65,692 visitors with each visitor spending an average of over eight minutes on the site visiting 15 pages. So interest could fairly be described as strong, even if the media has not stoked up anticipation in this auction to the same extent as the first auction.

To my eye, the maximum reserve prices (the maximum price beyond which the auctioneer guarantees a sale and which may only be reduced on the day of the auction) look keener for this sale than the previous two. There was a preview of the lots on here when the catalogue was first produced in August. The results of the first auction show actual prices were some 23% over the maximum reserves and for the second auction that margin had grown to 36%. Director of Auctions at Allsop Space, Robert Hoban said today “the one thing that is consistent is that reserves remain realistic. We hold firm on that requirement” This auction on Friday includes a large proportion that is non-receivership lots.

According to the country’s main actual price index from the CSO, prices are down some 43% from peak in 2007 and fell by 0.8% in July 2011 (the last month for which data is available – August 2011 data should be published next week). Other indices show a range of declines from peak of 33-60%. To my eye, average prices at the first two Allsop Space auctions were 60-70% off settled prices in 2007.

If you have any money left over after Friday, there are two more auctions inIrelandnext week.

On Thursday 29th September, 2011 Northern Ireland auctioneers Osborne King in Belfast will be auctioning 27 properties, most of which appear to be receiver/mortgagee in possession sales. The catalogue is available here.

And the following day, on Friday, 30th September 2011, Galwayauctioneer, O’Donnellan Joyce, will be auctioning 15 properties with AMVs (Advised Minimum Values – the “true opinion of the auctioneer of value as advised in writing to the seller prior to marketing commencing”) of €3.6m. O’Donnellan Joyce claim to have had an 80% success rate in “placing” 39 properties for auction in 2010. There doesn’t appear to be a catalogue available online.

And finally let’s not forget NAMA which is reportedly launching apartments in the  Beacon South Quarter in Sandyford this week.