‘Forty-acre Wicklow farm exceeds €26k an acre at auction’. Irish Examiner. 10/05/23.
Gorey-based auctioneers Quinn Property said the auction, and the results of recent auctions, point to a remarkably strong market for land and country homes in the southeast.
Another successful online auction took place on Wednesday of last week with Gorey-based auctioneers Quinn Property.
The holding was a 40.5-acre farm in the townland of Johnstown, near Arklow, County Wicklow. It was sold along with an adjacent second lot, which consists of a house with outbuildings on 0.5 acres.
According to the selling agent David Quinn, the land was suitable for either tillage or pasture. Approximately 32 acres of it is in tillage at present, with the remaining eight acres or so in pasture; divided into two paddocks.
With good road frontage and within 6km of the M11, this well-located property was always going to attract a lot of bidders and always likely to sell in the separate lots.
Lot 1 was guiding at between €10,000 and €15,000 per acre. There were almost 15 registered bidders before the sale began, with five declaring their interest for the house on half an acre with outbuildings.
The bidding opened at €400,000 (€10k/acre), quickly moving beyond €600,000 and up to €700,000 (€17k/acre). The bids continued to come at pace and when it reached €820,000 (€20,200/acre), auctioneer David Quinn called a break to take client instructions.
Upon his return to the virtual auction room, David announced that the property was on the market. There was no let-up in the pace of bids, however, and the property soon reached the €1,000,000 mark. Four more bids later, the farm was sold at a price of €1,060,000, or an extraordinary €26,174/acre.
There had been seven different bidders on the day and the one with the winning bid was identified as a local dairy farmer. Afterwards, David commented that he was “thrilled to have overseen yet another ground-breaking result”.
“We are very pleased to have secured a strong price for both lots (Lot 2 sold for €220k; €40k above the guide price), particularly for Lot 1 where a price of over €26,000 per acre was achieved… today’s results, and the results of recent auctions, point to a remarkably strong market for land and country homes in the southeast.”
This article was written by Conor Power and can be accessed here.