Going, going, gone - Davitt has dunnit!

If you're tempted by the thought of buying a brand new apartment in Mullingar for under €70,000, you've left it too late, reveals local auctioneer, Aidan Davitt, who was wiping his brow on Sunday evening as the last of the willing purchasers wanting a bargain buy left the Tailteann Court complex, with their names signed on the dotted line.Just one apartment out of the 48 was unsold after the two day open viewings sessions at the complex, located on the site of the former Tailteann Textiles factory near the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar."We had four hundred - at least - coming to view the apartments on Saturday: we got rid of 300 brochures, plus took down 150 people's names. Then on Sunday, it was even busier, and there must have been 500 there," says Aidan, of the local firm Sherry FitzGerald Davitt and Davitt.The fact that one bedroom apartments were on offer at the complex from just €69,950 got the firm headlines in the national media in advance of the weekend's sale, and the price was a hot topic with the online community, getting discussed on property forums, and sites such as boards.ie and politics.ie.The most expensive apartment available from the 48 on sale over the weekend was a three-bed at €125,000, but there were three beds available from as little as around €95,000; two-beds from €73,000 to about €98,000; and the one-beds ranged in price up to about the €75,000 mark, he says.It was a case of all hands on deck - or decking if you're talking about the balconies - for Sherry FitzGerald Davitt and Davitt over the course of the weekend, as staff showed viewers around the properties, and helped with the many questions that cropped up, such as how they were heated (gas); why they couldn't buy the show apartment (sold); was there parking (plenty)."We're delighted with the way it went," says Aidan. "It's all about price, and they were priced right."Over 50 per cent of those who signed up to buy were first time buyers; the remainder, investors. The majority were local, and delighted to snap up a property "at home" and at such a competitive price, which mortgage expert, Frank Conway, of the Irish Mortgage Corporation, described as costing less than the price of a packet of cigarettes per day.In interviews with national media, Aidan spoke several times of how effective it had proven for the firm to run their advertisements for Tailteann Court in the Westmeath Examiner.At the height of the boom, one bed apartments of similar quality in Mullingar, would have sold for in or around the €150,000 mark, and two beds for perhaps €220,000.The apartments were sold on the instruction of receiver John McStay, acting for National Irish Bank.There is a further block of sixteen apartments as part of the complex, but work on those is not yet fully complete.