FOUR per cent of sales from a recent auction headlined by the ‘cheapest house in Ireland’ went to British-based buyers, who snapped up a total of €1.2million worth of property.
This month’s Allsop auction in Dublin made headlines around the world after pictures of a detached two-storey property in rural Donegal with a reserve of €15,000 went viral.
It was expected that the 182 lot sale would attract significant British interest but in the end just six of the lots went to British bidders.
The Donegal home was sold to an Irish buyer for just €33,000.
"The interest was there, British bidders were in for a lot of the properties but they just ended up going to other bidders,” said an Allsop spokesman.
It had been anticipated that one-in-10 buyers would be British, based on the origins of the company’s website traffic — where Britain was second only to Ireland in terms of interest.
Bargains picked up by British buyers at the recent sale included a restaurant in Youghal for €70,000 and a vacant four bedroom detached home on the shores of Lough Derg which was sold for €185,000.
Of the 1,500 properties sold in previous Allsop auctions, 120 have been snapped up by British buyers accounting for £11.5million in total sales.
A whopping €34million worth of stock was sold in total at the recent auction.