The auction season got off to a strong start on February 15th, with two houses exceeding their expected price by so much that market watchers could have been forgiven for thinking that the property scene in 2001 would be as buoyant as the year before.
1 Wellington Road in Dublin 4, sold for £2.7 million, (€3.42m) well in excess of the £1.8 million guide. On the same day a fine-looking family home in Churchtown, Dublin 14, made £1.23 million (€1.56) - exactly twice its pre-auction guide. However agents knew from looking at their books that the market was changing.
There was a post-Christmas rush to sell and some agents reported an increase of as much as 30 per cent in the number of houses on their books - so buyers were finding that their choices were broader.
In the weeks that followed it became clear to all that the market was changing. By the summer, over 50 per cent of all houses that went to auction were withdrawn, not that some didn't sell soon after, but the public nature of an auction room means that what happens there sends out powerful signals to market watchers.
By the end of the season houses that would have sold in four weeks a year before were taking up to 12 weeks to sell and agents were increasingly advising their clients to drop their asking price - particularly for houses over £250,000 (€317,434).
Slow sales, a glut of houses at certain price levels and static or dropping prices pointed to a market that was edging towards a slowdown. At Christmas agents were predicting that the new season's market was on course to grow by 11 per cent- that figure has now been halved.
However some auctioneers and vendors were still optimistic. The season saw some of the biggest price tags ever for Dublin houses, when Sherry FitzGerald put a price of £8 million (€10.15m) on Kenah Hall, businessman Martin Birrane's Killiney home. Meanwhile, Lisney priced Victoria House, a family home in Dalkey, at £6 million (€7.61m). Neither house has sold.
The biggest price paid for a Dublin house this year on the open market was just over £4 million (€5.07m) for 83 Ailesbury Road. The house was sold by privaste treaty through HOK Residential. It had been lived in as a family home and the owners were downsizing to a house in Connemara. It sold by private treaty while further along the road, number 3 was withdrawn by Gunne at auction at £3.5 million (€4.44m) and is still for sale.
A Howth property fetched £3.87 million (€4.91m), the biggest price paid at auction this year for a Dublin house. The five-bedroom Georgian house is on one of the most dramatically beautiful sites in the Baily area of Howth. The Finnegan Menton auction was one of the most exciting of the year, with three bidders still on their feet when the bids reached £3.87 million (€4.91m).
Another big sale was Cortina, an extraordinarily grand-scale renovation of a simple Edwardian house on the Brennanstown Road in Carrickmines. In May, Lisneys were set to put it to auction with a guide of £4 million (€5.08m) when, in one of the few pre-auction sales of the season, a buyer appeared and snapped it up for a few thousand short of the guide.
As usual, Dublin 4 yielded strong results with 6 Sydney Parade Avenue selling for over £3 million (€3.81m) shortly after it was withdrawn from auction. 12 Arygle Road, a large family home in Donnybrook, sold for the same price after it was withdrawn at £2.9 million (€3.68).
