‘Lightning strikes twice in East Wicklow with two farms reaching €21k an acre’. Irish Examiner. 03/10/22.

QUINN PROPERTY, based in Gorey, County Wexford, had an exceptional pair of results at two public auctions recently.

The first was on Friday, September 23, with the sale of a 50.6-acre farm in Knockanree, near Avoca, County Wicklow. The property was auctioned online and consisted of the farm, a bungalow and outbuildings. With extensive road frontage, the holding lent itself to sub-division and was offered in three possible lots:

Lot 1 consisted of the bungalow and out-houses on circa 9.7 acres; Lot 2 was a holding of 40.9 acres; Lot 3 was the entire 50.6 acre holding.

The land is mostly in tillage and of excellent quality, with just a small amount given to woodland. The two-bedroom house is in need of improvement works and the range of outbuildings includes two old stone barns, a lofted barn and a double-rounded roof shed. 

It’s just 3km from the picturesque village of Avoca, 10km from Arklow and 8km from the M11. The price expectation was between €12,000 and €14,000 per acre.

With 10 registered bidders, Lot 1 was first on offer, receiving strong early bidding, quickly reaching €270,000. Lot 2 began in similar fashion with over 10 bids bringing it to €420,000 (or a combined total of €690,000).

After a brief pause, the entire property was offered to the (virtual) floor. The combined total was quickly eclipsed with an offer of €700,000. At this point, auctioneer David Quinn ran through Lots 1 and 2 again, seeking further bids. Brisk bidding did result in Lot 2 going to €500,000 but this was again eclipsed by a bid of €780,000 on the entire holding.

Another round of bidding on Lots 1 and 2 resulted in totals of €290,000 and €720,000 respectively, bringing the combined total to €1,010,000. At this point, there were no further bids on Lot 3, so David withdrew it and proceeded to offer Lots 1 and 2 again to the floor.

Lot 1 received one further bid and was sold for €295,000. There were three bidders involved and the purchaser was Dublin-based.

Lot 2, consisting of land alone, attracted eight further bids before the hammer came down on a price of €760,000. There were five active bidders for this quality land, which was sold to a local business person.

The total sale price of €1,055,000 equated to the extraordinary result of €21,000 per acre.

“Typical land values in the East Wicklow area range between €10,000 and €15,000 per acre,” said David afterwards. “To achieve a price in excess of €20,000/acre was a truly remarkable result.”

One week later, it was the turn of another farm to be auctioned online by the same agents. This property was also near Avoca and consisted of 29 acres of land with a single-storey cottage in the townland of Barniskey, 4km from Avoca and 8km from Brittas Bay strand.

The two-bedroom house is in need of complete renovation but in an attractive setting surrounded by mature gardens and trees. The lands are described by the selling agents as being of excellent quality, all in tillage, with no waste and free-draining.

Once again, with extensive road frontage on two sides, the option was taken to present the property in lots. In the run-up to the online auction, auctioneer David Quinn reported “phenomenal interest” in the farm, particularly in light of the number of disappointed underbidders from the previous week. The property was guided in the region of €380,000 to €400,000 (around €13,500/acre).

Lot 1 was the residence on 1.3 acres. Lot 2 was 28 acres of land. Lot 3 was the entire 29-acre holding.

The auction commenced with lively bidding on Lot 1, reaching €135,000, which was already in excess of the expectation of €80-€100,000. Bidding on Lot 2 began at €250,000 and went to €310,000.

The combined total was now €445,000, which was quickly eclipsed by a bid on Lot 3 of €455,000 and that was to be the end of bids on Lots 1 and 2 (there was one final bid on Lot 2 but the combined total was still short of the entire).

Bids on Lot 3 continued apace, with some dramatic last-gasp bids that saw the price move from €590,000 (as the hammer was about to fall) to €595,000 to €605,000. For the second time within the space of a week, a holding had sold for approximately €21,000/acre.

This article was written by Conor Power and can be viewed in its original form here.

QUINN PROPERTY – No. 1 Independent Auction House in the Southeast