I was at an auction hosted by David Quinn, Gorey, last Friday and boy did he have a real flyer on his hands. A plot of 21.7 acres situated just 2km outside Gorey sold within 60 seconds for €20,000/acre. Quinn told me that he had been guiding at €10,000 to €12,000/acre for the land.

According to Quinn, the bidding opened at €220,000 and, between two main bidders, the land was sold a minute later.

Quinn said that he put the land on the market at €400,000 and the hammer fell after a final bid of €420,000 (€19,355/ac) was enough to secure the ground for a local dairy farmer.

The underbidder was a businessman from Gorey.

“There were eight to 10 cast-iron customers in the room who never got to make a single bid for the land,” said Quinn.

Irish Country Living had previewed the land two weeks ago and described it as excellent quality, free-draining tillage land with good road frontage onto the Ballymoney Road.