Preview of Allsop Space mega auction on 3rd October, catalogue now published

Where: Shelbourne Hotel, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin
When: 3rd October, 2012 with first lot being offered at 11am
What: auction of 127 properties, mix of residential/commercial/development. Maximum reserves of €15,475,000. Online catalogue available here

It will be billed as Ireland’s biggest ever property auction with 127 Lots and maximum reserves of €15,475,000 – the “maximum reserve” is the price above which the winning bidder is guaranteed to get the property, the maximum reserves might be reduced on the day but they won’t increase. The online catalogue was published this morning.

As usual there is a diverse mix of residential, commercial and development properties located right across the country, with only a third in Dublin. Commercial property includes pubs, pharmacies, petrol station, offices, warehouses and shops. There is a 39-bedroom hotel in Leitrim with a maximum reserve of €300,000. In previous auctions, actual hammer prices have been around 25-40% above the maximum reserves and 9 out of 10 properties generally reach their real reserves. There is a mix of seller which includes receivers and owners – this isn’t all Bank of Scotland foreclosed property by a long stretch.

They seem to have run out of apartments to sell in Liam Carroll’s Castleforbes Square development but I see there are still flats being offered at The Tannery on Cork Street. Most expensive lot by reference to its €850,000 maximum reserves is a 5,000 sq ft Georgian office/residential building on Fitzwilliam Place, just off St Stephen’s Green.

What do the Lots tell us about prices generally? Not much given we just have maximum reserves which would suggest 70%-plus declines from peak if they equalled hammer prices. As is usual with such catalogues there is a very wide range of yields offered, ranging from – as far as I can see – 7% on a 2-bedroom flat off Bloomfield Avenue in Dublin 4 to high teens. There is a property at Church Hill in Tullamore in countyOffaly in a development that was in the past associated with NAMA. There is also a leasehold café in Beacon Court in Sandyford in Dublin but it is not clear if this is one of Paddy Shovlin’s properties to which NAMA has had receivers appointed.

Allsop Space is a joint venture between British auctioning giant Allsop and Dublin estate agency Space. Auctions are held every three months or so, and the venture became the biggest auction operation in Ireland right from the get-go when the first auction was held in April 2011. The venture has revolutionised auctioning in Ireland with outstanding levels of transparency, live webcasting of the auction proceedings and the concept of “maximum reserves”. Allsop Space also don’t entertain bids before the auction which just heightens the transparency of its business.