The farm property year got off to a good start on Friday when a 59ac farm in Co Kildare was sold at auction for €780,000, or €13,220/ac.

It was bought by a beef farmer from Co Dublin and the underbidder was a Kildare tillage farmer.

The auction was held online because of lockdown restrictions and was run on the Offr platform.

Auctioneer Eamon O’Flaherty of Sherry FitzGerald Brady O’Flaherty, who conducted the auction, said that there had been significant interest in the farm before the auction and that five individuals registered to bid.

Bids

“Bidding opened at the guide price of €590,000 and quickly moved through the reserve of €600,000. After another 37 bids, all within the 30-minute time frame of the auction, the farm was knocked down to the beef farmer from Co Dublin.”

“We were truly delighted with the result on the day for our clients,” O’Flaherty said.

“However, we did have a very strong level of interest in days before the auction, with over 60 enquiries from home and abroad including both the farming and non-farming sectors.

“Of the five bidders on the day, four were farmers and this just clearly shows the strong demand in North Kildare for good-quality agricultural land.”

Layout

The farm is in permanent pasture and located at Garvogue, Properous. It is laid out in six fields and has 300m of road frontage. The land was described as free-draining. This was an executors’ sale.

The other joint agent handling the sale was Sherry FitzGerald Reilly.