Where: Shelbourne Hotel, St Stephen’s Green, details here
When: Wednesday, 15th May, 2013 starting 10.00am (auctioneer announcements from 9.45am)
What: 125 Lots of residential, commercial and development property. The online catalogue is here. 38 commercial and investment Lots (with €10m max reserves) and 87 residential and land Lots – 55 houses, 21 apartments (Note as of this morning, four Lots have been withdrawn).
How much: Maximum reserves of €16.3m. Maximum reserves are an Allsop Space innovation and mean a price on a Lot which if met or exceeded at the auction, then the winning bidder is guaranteed to get the property. The actual reserve might be lower than the maximum reserve. It’s not that complicated! However for this auction on Wednesday, Allsop Space have introduced a new concept for some of the Lots, a “reserve range” about which Allsop Space says the “reserve is guaranteed to be set within the two figures, giving the buyer a better indication of where the seller’s bottom line will be”
Estate agents are generally reporting that the residential market has been quiet since the start of 2013, but that there is strong interest in commercial and development property which is being converted into actual sales. Note this is an assessment on activity, price changes depend on property type and location, and reporting is mixed on that front – prime commercial property with new tenancy leases seem to be increasing in value, Dublin houses appear to be stable, most commercial property is still declining, and prices nationally including houses in some parts of Dublin are still declining though at a slower rate than previously – that’s all based on anecdote, the latest residential indices from the CSO are here, the latest commercial indices are here, Ireland doesn’t have development property indices but anecdote indicates there have been declines of 90%-plus from peak.
This coming Wednesday, we’ll see the 11th Allsop Space mega auction, a series of auctions which have transformed the business in Ireland and against which no Irish operation has so far held a candle – BTW has being doing a decent job on a smaller scale on the other side of the Border. The Allsop Space auctions have the highest standards of transparency with online webcasting and live online prices, and the venue again is the Shelbourne Hotel which at the opening at 9.45am on Wednesday is again expected to be packed with standing room only.
The Lots are again a mix of residential, commercial and development and as in previous auctions are scattered across the country with just 33% in Dublin. Just over half of the property is income-producing. There is an increasing emphasis on commercial property and in this auction, Allsop Space have modified their reserves for some commercial property, it says to give a better guide price.
Highlights includes
(1) McDaniels pub complex in Brittas Bay, Dublin. The 9,000sqft pub, restaurant and 10 bedroom accommodation comes complete with a holiday village of 16 chalets and 18.75 acres with sweeping views over the Irish Sea. The Reserve Range is €625,000- €675,000.
(2) Farnham Court, Farnham Road, Cavan Town (pictured above).An entire development of 60 apartments located opposite Cavan General Hospital; 2 x freehold blocks of apartments, comprising 30 apartments each. 25 are currently let producing €127,000 per annum. Reserve Range: €1.5 million – €1.7 million.
(3) Shopping Centre, Cardiff Bridge Road, Finglas, Dublin 11.10 tenanted retail units, all fully let with a rental income of €251,993 p.a. Some tenants dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.ReserveRange: €1.2 million – €1.3 million.
You can follow entertaining and informative commentary on the auction from Carol Tallon of Buyers Broker who will be tweeting here.
NAMA Wine Lake 
Another great day to be Irish. Reposed property going so cheap that it is cheaper to buy than build by about 40%. Now if a person was to go into there local bank with a business plan showing the profits they could make by buying some of these lots would it not make sense to give them a loan. O wait I forgot that’s not how banks work in Ireland you must be a member of a small club who can borrow what they want and if it goes wrong they can get a total write down on they’re loans and move on to the next big thing.WELCOME TO LA LA LAND
Lot 105 – EBS is the original bank behind the mortgage, however this was sold to Vesta Mortgage Investments in December. Although loan sales are common, they usually tend to be larger commercial loans. Apart from possibly a few subprime lenders this is the first time I’ve seen what I would describe as a “retail loan” sold.
Vesta is a Deutsche Bank subsidiary, but it is possibly acting as custodian/administrator rather than beneficiary.
I imagine for the individual it is probably a very different experience, once the loans are sold off.