GVM Auctioneers auction room in Kilmallock Mart was in full swing again on Friday last for the auction of a circa 122ac residential farm situated at Graiganster, Kilmallock, Co Limerick.

Proceedings got underway with a slow start. Lot 1, 43ac, the house and yard received no bids and neither did Lot 2, 37ac.

An opening bid of €500,000 was placed on Lot 3, 41ac directly across the road from the yard but it went no further. It was the same story with Lot 4, a combination of the first two lots which received an opening bid of €800,000 but no further bids followed.

Local farming

With a combined total of €1.3m, auctioneer, Richard Ryan invited bids in excess of this and from here the auction sprung into life. It opened at €1.31m and in a matter of minutes it reached €1.91m following a rapid exchange of bids from an in-house bidder and an online bidder.

At this point there was a brief recess and following this, he returned with instructions to place it on the market as an entire.

There was one further bid of €10,000 before he brought the gavel down at €1.92m. This equates to €15,738/ac.

A local farming family who were present at the auction were the purchasers and it is believed that the online under bidder was also involved in farming.

Commenting afterwards, Richard Ryan said: “It was a smashing farm situated just outside the town of Kilmallock. We had a guide price of €15,000/ac on it and we were very happy with the price achieved. It shows that land values continue to remain solid.”