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• Clonbur, Connemara – five-bed with €70,000 reserve
• Meadow Court, Blackrock, Co Dublin – four apartments for sale
• The Watermill, Rathvilly, Co Carlow – millhouse with a reserve of €150,000
• Belfry Drive, Drogheda – showhouse for €128,000
• Gary Murphy who conducted all four of last year’s Allsop/Space auctions

The first of five planned Allsop/Space auctions for 2012 is scheduled for next week.
FRANCES O’ROURKE gets a glimpse backstage with Allsop auctioneer Gary Murphy and below
EDEL MORGAN previews some of the properties that are being lined up for sale

ALLSOP/SPACE’S first mass auction of properties in the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, last April “was more buzzy than I’ve seen in my whole career,” says Gary Murphy, the silver-tongued UK auctioneer who conducted all four Allsop/Space auctions here last year.

“As soon as the first lot was offered, hands went up everywhere and I thought ‘this is going to be a good day’. ”

And it was: all the lots sold, either on the day or just after. “I’d only done that once before,” says Murphy, who has been an auctioneer for 27 years, when he joined his father’s firm in London before moving to Allsop to build its residential auction arm in the midst of a 1980s recession.

Now, he says, Allsop/Space is here for the long term: it has five auctions planned for 2012, the first one kicking off next Thursday.

Over four packed auctions between April and December 2011, 96 per cent of 340 lots – 80 per cent of them residential – sold, bringing, Murphy says, transparency to a property market where information is a scarce commodity.

Thus when asked if prices are falling, he’s confident saying that “the price of good apartments producing an income in the centre of Dublin now appears to be stable. We’re getting the same price at each auction. Yields are between 8-12 per cent; it’s a benchmark.”

There will be no shortage of properties to sell, he says. “I think we’ve just scratched the surface: it’s a question of getting the right stock at the right price.”

Allsop/Space discussed its plans with banks here in the year before it launched its first mass auction, and is understood to be selling properties on behalf of the Bank of Scotland, although Murphy will not confirm this.

He is sympathetic to people who protested at Allsop’s recent auctions but says there are very few repossessed properties in its sales.

“Selling properties on behalf of receivers would be different, however.”

One of the keys to the success of the mass auctions was establishing record low reserves – and guaranteeing that the properties would sell once they had reached them.

How did they hit on a reserve of €7,500 for a cottage in Leitrim which grabbed headlines when the March 1st auction was announced?

“We look at properties, try to get comparisons. It has to be a no brainer price, the ‘I’d buy it for that’ price. The problem is getting the vendor to agree.” About 30 per cent of vendors in its catalogues are private sellers.

“When you set the maximum reserve, it has to be lower than the price you expect to achieve, to provoke competition. But we pledge that a property will be sold when it reaches that reserve price.”

Over four auctions, 76 per cent of properties sold at or above the reserve, and 72 per of sales were to cash buyers. The auctions have attracted attention from a global market, with 140 registered bidders from abroad.

“Twelve per cent of overseas bidders – from countries ranging from Australia to the United Arab Emirates to South Africa – were successful.

Auctioneering is in Murphy’s genes: he has been on the rostrum since he joined Hillyer’s, the London firm his grandfather had founded. He joined Allsop, a 104-year-old firm, in 1986, building its residential department on the back of large country houses. Then, in the recession of the late 1980s/early 1990s “we talked to Halifax and pioneered the sale of repossessed properties by auction. We’d have two-day sales, selling 400 lots a day”.

He enjoys auctions enormously, saying “I’m a bit of a show-off.” He says he can spot who’s an investor, who’s a first-time buyer by looking at his audience, and that every bid is a little negotiation, a bit like tennis. He says he particularly enjoyed the Irish auctions “because of the characters in the room; and it’s nice to see people enjoy buying property. An auction is a great way of focussing people’s attention.”

AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS WHAT’S ON THE CARDS 

A DETACHED new four-bedroom showhouse in Drogheda with a reserve of €128,000, four apartments in a south county Dublin development, Meadow Court in Blackrock, with prices ranging from €90,000 to €170,000, and a house of bedsitters in Crumlin with a yield of 28 per cent – the highest in its catalogue – are amongst properties included in next Thursday’s Allsop/Space auction.

Some of the properties failed to sell in Allsop’s recent auctions and have dropped their reserves: the reserve on a two-bedroom apartment for sale in Meadow Court, Stillorgan Park, Co Dublin, has cut its reserve price from €240,000 to €170,000 for next week’s sale.

“We’re learning about prices as well,” says Allsop/Space’s Robert Hoban.

The auctioneers are confident that next week’s auction in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin will again attract crowds.

There are 100 lots in the sale, of which about 74 per cent of the properties are residential. Fifty per cent of the 100 listed for sale are being sold with tenants in place and nearly half the lots are in Dublin.

While 68 per cent of the sales are on behalf of receivers or liquidators, about one-third of the sellers are private, people who in some cases have had their houses on the market for a couple of years says Hoban.

According to Hoban, three of the most talked about properties – the ones that made headlines a few weeks ago, when the agents announced the auction – are being sold on behalf of private individuals.

Lot 55, a cottage at Drumcannon, Carrigallen, Co Leitrim which has a reserve of €7,500; lot 67 the Watermill, Rathvilly, Co Carlow, a millhouse, with a reserve of €150,000; and lot 54, 41 Seville Place, Dublin 1, which is set at €35,000.

“All were frustrated with the arduous process of having tried the private treaty market with no success. All had been on the market for a long time, with numerous offers received, but none progressed. Each are very keen to establish open market value with hopefully the certainty of signed contracts.”

He says a large number of the receivership properties have tried the private treaty market without a signed contract emerging – most notably, the Sandhouse Hotel in Donegal, which was on the market for three years without success. “Many eyes will be watching to see how it fares.”

A housing-price index that excludes foreclosure sales showed South Florida homes sold for 1.2 percent more in December than they did in November. The FNC Residential Price Index does not adjust for seasonal swings in the housing market, but it’s encouraging to note that December 2010 saw a 2 percent dip in the South Florida index. A gain for December 2011 hints at a possible turnaround in an historic collapse in prices. Whatever the cause, Miami was in the minority for December. Of the 30 metropolitan areas tracked by FNC, only seven saw higher prices than they did in November. Tampa joined Miami in beating the curve in December with a higher FNC reading, another good omen for real estate in the Sunshine State.

Or not. Similar indices — most notably the Case-Shiller index — have bounced off lows in the past, only to resume a general slide that began five years ago. The FNC index shows home prices are down 55 percent from their peaks. Case-Shiller mostly agrees, showing a 51 percent drop.

DOUGLAS HANKS

LIN’S NEW CRIB

Remember when Jeremy Lin was sleeping on his brother’s couch? What a difference a couple weeks makes. See photos of Lin’s new home in NYC.

Breakout New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin is renting an all-inclusive, impeccably furnished pad at the W Hotel in Manhattan’s Financial District, sources said.

His swanky, 1,182-square-foot (110-square-meter) condo at the Sunshine Select Residences is in addition to his new digs at the Trump Tower in White Plains.

And both are vast improvements over crashing on a couch at his brother’s Lower East Side pad, which was Lin’s living situation just weeks ago.

The two-bedroom W suite comes outfitted with $30,000 to $35,000 worth of Tui Lifestyle furniture.

LINSANITY!

Rents there range from $3,600 to $8,900 a month, according to Streeteasy.com. The owner of Lin’s unit had put the two-bed, two-bath apartment up for sale for $2.315 million before renting it out.

Building amenities include a gym and preferred reservations, seating and in-residence dining at the hotel’s BLT bar. Residents also have access to a digital lounge with video games, a movie screening room, cafe, gym and rooftop terrace.

The humble hoops star did not pick the flashiest apartment in the building and instead went for a mid-level unit, sources said.

Lin will sign the rental papers this week, giving him a short trip to Madison Square Garden on game nights.

And his Westchester County condo — owned by his pal and former Golden State Warrior teammate David Lee — is a short drive from the Knicks’ practice facility in Greenburgh, N.Y.

HE’S BALLIN’

Check out Jeremy Lin in action during his breakout season.

Sources said Lin plans to spend most of his time at the hotel residence.

Lin, an ex-NBA cast-off cut by two teams, sparked a phenomenon known as Linsanity in helping the Knicks turn around a losing season.

Along the way, he has also shown an uncanny ability to win friends — even among opponents.Nets forward Kris Humphries said, “It’s nice to see great things happen for nice people.”

And if you got out from under an oppressive mortgage through a short sale — when the bank agrees to accept less than what the homeowner owes — lenders can look upon you just as unfavorably.

It’s a reality that the former owners of the more than 4 million homes lost to foreclosure in the six years since the housing bubble burst will have to confront if they want to own again. But the passage of time makes all the difference.

That’s because mortgage-lending guidelines that most banks follow prohibit them from making loans to people with foreclosure or a short sale in their credit history, often for years. Never mind the hit that one’s credit score takes.

Still, some of the homeowners who were foreclosed upon when the market first started to skid are now looking to buy and getting loans.

“They’re probably going to pay a little higher interest rate, but with rates so low, a higher interest rate of 4 percent is not a big deal,” said Rosa Herwick, a broker and owner of Century 21 JR Realty in Henderson, Nev.

So how likely are banks to approve your mortgage application if you have a real estate-related blemish on your record? And can you do anything to spring yourself from the mortgage penalty box?

It depends on several factors, but largely on whether you had a foreclosure or a short sale.

FORECLOSURE

Generally, borrowers who have a foreclosure in their credit history can expect to wait between two to seven years before a lender will even accept their loan application.

The waiting periods stem from guidelines most banks must follow in order to be able to sell their home loans. That’s because potential purchasers, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, each have a different set of guidelines for the loans they will buy and criteria for whom they deem a qualified borrower.

The fact is, a person’s credit score, employment history and other factors that make up one’s creditworthiness will take a back seat to these resale guidelines.

If a buyer with a past foreclosure is seeking a government-backed mortgage, the waiting period can vary before they can qualify.

Take the Federal Housing Administration, which insures roughly 30 percent of new loans. Under its guidelines, former homeowners must wait three years from the date of their foreclosure before they can qualify for backing by the agency.

Compare the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s housing program which requires three years, while the time penalty for a VA loan is two years. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee about half of all mortgages, require the longest stretch: seven years after a foreclosure.

In some cases, the waiting periods for a foreclosure can be reduced.

Fannie Mae, for example, allows a three-year waiting period in the event the foreclosure was due to an extenuating circumstance. The company defines this as an event that was beyond the homeowners’ control and resulted in a sudden reduction in income or catastrophic increase in financial obligations. Think job layoff, medical bills or divorce.

FHA may grant an exception to its waiting period in the event a wage-earner becomes seriously ill or dies. A divorce may qualify for an exception, but only in certain cases.

SHORT SALES

The roadblocks for having a short sale in your credit history can be less severe, and in some cases, waived altogether.

FHA requires borrowers who weren’t paying their mortgage when they sold their house to wait three years before they can qualify for a home loan. That time penalty may be waived in certain cases, including long-term job loss.

There is no FHA time penalty for homeowners who made their house payments in the 12 months before their short sale.

The size of a down payment can also shorten the waiting period.

A down payment of 20 percent or more will cut Fannie Mae’s time penalty on a borrower with a short sale down to two years from seven. Buyers who put down 10 percent can qualify after four years.

CREDIT SCORE

It’s no longer just a waiting game for homeowners caught up in the earliest stages of the foreclosure crisis in 2007 and 2008.

There’s still the impact a foreclosure or short sale has on one’s credit score — still very much a factor in qualifying for a loan.

Like most credit blemishes, foreclosures and short sales will remain in your credit history for seven years.

As a general rule, the higher your FICO score, the more it will drop as a result of a bad debt, said Barry Paperno, consumer affairs manager for MyFICO.com, the consumer website for FICO.

FICO credit scores range from 300 to 850. In simulations, a foreclosure sent a FICO score of about 720 down to as low as 570 and took about seven years to recover fully, assuming everything else being equal.

Still, there are steps one can take to burnish one’s tarnished credit rating.

_ While in the foreclosure penalty box, make sure to pay all your bills on time.

FREE 3 in 1 CREDIT REPORT

World beaters: Swedish House Mafia (from left) Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello.
Source: Supplied

HOW popular are Swedish House Mafia right now?

The winning trifecta of Scandinavian DJs – Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso – sold out their headline show at Madison Square Garden in New York last December. And did so in just 10 minutes.

It’s all the more remarkable considering there’s been no album, only a handful of singles released under the Swedish House Mafia name.

Their success isn’t only a signpost of the belated US discovery of house music. SHM are also headlining at the 50,000-plus Milton Keynes Bowl in England in July and the Future Music Festival across Australia next month.

“We’re definitely living the dream right now,” Axwell says. “It’s been a pretty long journey, that’s why we can both take it in and also understand it’s here now, so make the most of it. We don’t run around pretending we’re superstars. It’s a nice situation to be in where you’ve worked long enough for the success to really appreciate it.”

The successful solo DJs united in 2008 in a house supergroup. Their success accelerated with singles Leave the World Behind, One and Miami to Ibiza with Tinie Tempah.

In 2010 there was a Swedish House Mafia documentary screened around the world – showing a world of big audiences, LA mansions, five-star hotels and private planes.

A classic moment in the doco saw Paris Hilton interrupting Angello’s set to request a song. When he refused, she said, “I’m Paris Hilton, who the f#@k are you?” He replied, “I don’t give a f#@k”.

“I dropped that when it happened,” Angello says.

The Madison Square Garden event was not only a turning point for SHM, but a landmark for house music.

“I used to come to America in 2002, but house hadn’t crossed over from the underground,” Angello says. “But doors have opened in the past two or three years, out to mainstream radio and charts. Since then it’s endless how big it can get and how fast it can grow.”

The trio streamed the Madison Square Garden show live on the net and have recorded it for future use – once they clear the samples of everyone from R.E.M. to Coldplay, fitting into their stadium-rock dance vibe.

“We don’t get many original songs in house music,” Axwell says. “We have to steal their type of music and make it work in our world.”

Last year SHM remixed Coldplay’s Every Teardrop is a Waterfall into a dancefloor epic.

“Coldplay are our favourite band in the whole world,” Axwell says. “It was such a huge moment for us to do that remix. It was so precious to us to get our hands on Chris Martin’s vocals and the instruments and create something.”

Last year Martin told of a moment when his band was playing Scottish festival T in the Park at the same time Swedish House Mafia were on a dance stage. They were doing a ballad when SHM’s Teardrop remix floated over.

“We were playing Coldplay, they were playing Coldplay … ,” Axwell says.

“We should have synced it to play at the same time.”

Swedish House Mafia are touring like a rock band, not DJs. Their live production is an formidable mix of state-of-the-art visuals, intense lighting and occasional pyrotechnics.

“We’ve always looked up to the likes of Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers,” Axwell says. “Bigger and better is always something we want to do. It’s pretty insane that we have that following where we can put on a show like that.”

Unlike rock bands, their costs are incredibly high.

“We haven’t embarked on a world tour like normal bands do, where you take your production out for two months and gig all the time,” Axwell says.

“We do show by show, which makes it super expensive. We build everything for one show and then break it down. It’s not the best deal money-wise, but it’s all for the love.”

While there’s a lot of love for Swedish House Mafia, there’s also the haters – house purists who feel SHM are dumbing down the genre.

“There’s always going to be people who don’t like what you do,” Axwell says. “Ten years ago it was pretty standard procedure I was emptying the floor when I was DJing. House music wasn’t that popular.

“So to come from that and sell out Madison Square Garden in 10 minutes, you can take a few negative posts on your Facebook. It’s not a big deal.”

When the trio praise Australians, it isn’t just empty talk.

Ingrosso co-wrote Kylie Minogue’s Cupid Boy, while the latest SHM single Antidote features Knife Party, the offshoot of expats Pendulum.

Axwell’s label has released local dance acts TV Rock, Dirty South and Aston Shuffle.

“The music from Australia comes with a little bit of sunshine,” Axwell says. “For me sitting in cold Sweden, when I receive some of the Australian music, it lights up my life. You can really feel it’s Australian. I love that.”

There’s also another more pressing plan when SHM get to Australia. They’ve cleared out a week between Future festivals to finish their long-awaited debut album.

“We’re getting a house and building a studio in it. We’ll have the view, relax, make some music,” Angello says.

“We found the sickest Sydney house,” Axwell says.

“We’re going to stay together, really get into the music while experiencing what Sydney has to offer. We just have to try and not sit on Bondi Beach and drink beer all week.”-

SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA play:

VIC Future Music Festival, March 11, Flemington Racecourse, $170.85/$295.85; Ticketmaster

NSW Future Music Festival, March 10, Royal Randwick Racecourse, $170.85/$295.85,  Ticketmaster

QLD Future Music Festival, March 3, Doomben Racecourse, $111.10/$195.85, Ticketmaster.

In the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2011, the Index indicated the following:

• Los Angeles area values declined 1.8% from the third quarter of 2011
  and dipped 0.1% from the fourth quarter a year ago. The average luxury
  home in Los Angeles is now $1.97 million.
• San Diego area values rose 1.1% from the third quarter but dropped
  3.7% year-over-year. The average luxury home in San Diego is now $1.64
  million.
• San Francisco Bay Area values fell 0.3% from the third quarter and
  were down 3.1% from a year ago. The average luxury home in San
  Francisco is now $2.52 million.

“Luxury home prices in urban, costal markets in California were mostly
stable in the fourth quarter,” said Katherine
August-deWilde, President and Chief Operating Officer of First
Republic Bank. “Low rates, good values and positive economic news have
led to increasing interest in home buying in 2012. San Francisco and
Silicon Valley, in particular, are likely to benefit from the strength
of the technology and social media sectors.”

First Republic Bank produces the Prestige Home Index each quarter with
Fiserv CSW Inc., a leading provider of automated property valuation
services and home price metrics to U.S. financial institutions.
Historical results of the Index, which has tracked luxury homes since
1985, are accessible at www.firstrepublic.com.
First Republic Bank is an active lender in the luxury home market for
primary residences and vacation homes.

Los Angeles Area Values

In Los Angeles, values have remained in a narrow range over the past two
years. In the first quarter of 2010, the average price of a luxury home
in Los Angeles was $1.98 million. In the fourth quarter of 2012, it was
$1.97 million.

Agents said buyer activity rose toward the close of the fourth quarter.
“The end of the fourth quarter closed very strong,” said Mary Beth Woods
of Coldwell Banker in Brentwood. “The problem is that we don’t have as
much inventory as we need. Buyers are hunting for properties. If the
home is priced close to recent comps, it will sell.”

Rory Posin of RE/MAX in Beverly Hills said the market has clearly picked
up. “I don’t think I could be any busier. Pricing is flat, but activity
is strong.”

In Santa Barbara County, the market appears to be firming. “The high-end
market in Montecito was slow the last couple of years, but it heated up
at the end of 2011,” said Rebecca Riskin of Village Properties in
Montecito. “Since January, we have seen multiple closings for over $9
million, as well as several homes above $15 million enter escrow. Buyers
remain price conscious, but there is a greater level of confidence in
the market.”

San Diego Area Values

San Diego values posted a second consecutive quarterly gain, but prices
were still down 3.7% year-over-year.

“Most of the high-end sales in the fourth quarter were on the
oceanfront,” said Andy Nelson, President and CEO of Willis Allen Real
Estate. “In the first quarter, we have seen new buyers looking for
properties. That’s a good sign. We also have reduced inventory and that
could help push prices. If prices start improving, we may see sellers
re-enter the market.”

In La Jolla, activity has increased markedly since the beginning of the
year. “The fourth quarter was slow, and we were worried it would carry
over into the New Year,” said Peggy Chodorow of Prudential California
Realty in La Jolla. “Since the beginning of the year, the market has
changed. People are buying houses, and the number of showings has
skyrocketed. We’ve even had some multiple offers. This is going on
across every price range.”

San Francisco Bay Area Values

In the Bay Area, Silicon Valley and San Francisco were the most robust
markets for luxury homes.

“You are starting to see the positive impact of social media IPOs, hedge
fund wealth, and interest from foreign buyers,” said David Barrett of
Warwick Properties Group in San Francisco. “The market is benefitting
from good old-fashioned consumer confidence. We recently had 100 people
at a showing.”

In Silicon Valley, the market was strong. “In the fourth quarter,
especially in the last two months, the market really picked up,” said
Monica Corman of Alain Pinel in Menlo Park. “Just about everything was
selling. Palo Alto has been strong, and it has spread to other
communities. There’s incredibly low inventory and pent-up demand.
Silicon Valley also has experienced job growth and IPOs. All of this is
driving the market.”

In Marin County, prices were stable. “The market is largely flat and
will remain flat for the next two to three years, with only modest
increases likely,” said Brad Garsten of Frank Allen Howard Realtors in
Greenbrae. “We’re going to continue to teeter along the bottom until the
economy comes back nationally and globally.”