Five bidders battle it out for €1.7m Limerick farm
THE AUCTION room in Kilmallock Mart was packed for the public sale of a 90.75 acre roadside farm at Ballingaddy, Kilmallock, Limerick.
Described by Richard Ryan, of GVM Auctioneers, Kilmallock, as “an outstanding roadside farm situated in the heart of the Golden Vale”.
The lands, which are of excellent quality, all in permanent pasture, laid out in easily managed, well sheltered fields and serviced with a central roadway and piped water.
There is an extensive range of farm buildings comprising of a 5-bay double slatted shed, cubicle accommodation for over 100 head of cattle, two covered walled silage pits, calving pens, machinery shed, open slurry pit, silage apron, cattle crush and canteen.
The lands are serviced with mains electricity and a well water supply.
On top of this, the farm contained a considerable amount of road frontage. There was a buzz in the auction room on Friday as Mr Ryan got proceedings underway.
An opening bid of €1,000,000 was followed by a number of €50,000 bids to reach €1,350,000, which was followed by eight €25,000 bids to €1,550,000. At this stage there was a recess to consult with the vendors.
On returning, Mr Ryan stated that he had received instructions to put the farm on the market. There were four further bids of €25,000 followed by five €10,000 bids.
There was a total of five in-house bidders with three of them involved up to €1.6m.
The last €100,000 was fought out by two bidders eventually selling for €1,700,000 to Limerick city based solicitor Caroline Meeney, of Sellors LLP, acting in trust for a client.
The auction was also streamed online but there were no bids from those monitoring remotely .
Commenting after the auction, Mr Ryan said that this was a special farm in terms of both land quality and farm buildings and he always felt it was going to sell well.
“They are not making any more land. Despite a challenging year for farmers it is encouraging to see plenty of confidence in land and €18,733 per acre is a satisfying result,” said Mr Ryan
The vendors were represented by Gerardine Ryan, of Maurice Power Solicitors, Kilmallock.