Mullingar estate goes under the hammer

A portion of one of the biggest unfinished housing estates in Mullingar is set to go under the hammer at an auction in Dublin next month.

Eleven houses (one five-bed, detached, one four-bed semi and nine semis) and 10 floor slab sites in the Cloon Lara estate on the Athlone Road make up one of the most noteworthy lots in the latest Allsop auction, at the RDS on December 11.

The reserve price of the Cloon Lara lot is €800,000.

According to the brochure, only one of the 11 residential units is fully complete, while the other 10 are described as “substantially complete”.

The completed unit, one of the nine three-bed semis, is currently occupied, producing a rental income of €7,200.

Last March, Cloon Lara was one of 13 Westmeath estates placed on the Department of the Environment’s property tax waiver list. The common areas, roads, footpaths and green areas in the estate have been taken in charge by Westmeath County Council, the Allsop brochure states.

Next week's Allsop auction is being broken up into two days. Around 100 commercial lots are going under the hammer on December 9, while two days later approximately 200 residential lots will be sold off.

In addition to the Cloon Lara lot, nine residential units in Athlone are being sold on December 11, as well as a 1.73ac plot of land at Killennaugh, Rathowen, which has a reserve price of €15,000.

Director of auctions at Allsop, Robert Hoban, outlined why the firm decided to split the auction for the first time.

“It’s a big development for us to split the auction over two days but one thing we have noticed is that we have a very different profile of buyer between commercial and residential.

“A third of our residential buyers purchase for their own personal use, whereas on the commercial side there can be a lot of syndicates, investment funds and solicitors.”