There have been a number of successful farm sales in recent days. Raymond Potterton sold the high-profile Little Grange 196ac farm in Co Louth by online auction for €2.5m.

Four bidders took Lot 1 to €980,000 – this was 79ac. Lot 2 was bid to €1.092m – this was 117ac. The entire was then put up and opened at €2.1m and was sold at €2.5m.

“We had to allow more than 15 people attend, so it had to go online,” Stephen said. “At one point over 40 people were watching the auction online.” The buyers are a farming family based in Northern Ireland. The sale price worked out at just over €13,000/ac.

Laois

Castlecomer auctioneer Joe Coogan held an auction on a property at Clonboyne, on the edge of Portlaoise. To ensure social distancing, all of the potential buyers remained in their cars, parked in a field. Joe went around to each car, one by one, and took bids. After getting a new bid he had to go around again, until bidding finally stopped. To complicate matters, the 67ac was sold in three lots. Luckily it wasn’t a wet day.

The outcome was that Lot 1, 40ac with a traditional house, sold for €945,000 to a solicitor from Kilkenny, who was bidding for an unnamed client. The underbidder was a dairy farmer.

Lot 2, which was 13ac, sold for €170,000 and Lot 3 (13.5ac) sold for €200,000. Both were bought by a Co Laois solicitor acting for a local farmer. The sale total was €1.3m or €19,514/ac.

Westmeath

Nine individuals made over 50 bids on the 103ac Slanestown farm near Mullingar when DNG Duncan held an auction. The room broke out into a spontaneous round of applause after auctioneer Andrew Duncan finally dropped the hammer. The land quality, its location on the edge of Mullingar combined with a derelict dwelling led to a strong demand and the final sale price was €865,000 or €8,398/ac. The auction was held in Shandonagh GAA grounds.

Andrew also had an auction for a 145ac farm at Grange, again near Mullingar. It was bought by a neighbouring landowner for €950,000. This land was more mixed.

Coonan Property closed the sale of 23ac with a yard at Clonkill, Mullingar, last week. The property was offered by auction, held on the land. Bidding started at €130,000. Three main bidders added increments of €5,000 and €10,000 until eventually reaching €205,000. The property was withdrawn.

Negotiations were held with the highest bidder and a deal was agreed immediately afterwards. The property was purchased by a Mullingar-based solicitor in trust. The vendor was happy with the result which made over the guide price.

Kildare

Coonans also sold 10ac of land at Blackhall, Dunboyne, Co Kildare, last week, by public auction. The event was well attended, with guidelines being adhered to, and the farmland sold quickly. This was prime land with excellent road frontage.

The opening bid was €130,000. Bidding climbed in increments of €10,000 and then €5,000 until a figure of €150,000 was reached. After a short interval, the property was placed on the market and sold to a local farmer for €190,000.

“Good farms are in very strong demand presently with buyers from the farming and business sector very active,” auctioneer Philip Byrne commented after the sale.