New business focus for Kiernan Auctioneers

THE popularity of television house refurbishment programmes like Dermot Bannon’s Room To Improve on RTÉ One has led to an uptake in the purchase of old housing stock, according to Castlebar auctioneer Barney Kiernan, writes Tom Gillespie.

Spencer Street native Barney, of Kiernan Estate Agents, Linenhall Street, is about to relinquish his association with the EBS after 23 years, which is moving to the old Halifax premises on Main Street.

Instead, he and his wife, Fiona, are to concentrate solely on the auctioneering aspect of the business, which they established a quarter of a century ago.

Barney explained: “What has prompted me to move on is that every year there is an increasing amount of regulations and red tape which is almost self-generating and you are running two separate businesses.

“You are dealing with two separate regulators. It is all compliance, box-ticking and red tape. I got to the point where I asked myself, ‘Do I need this at this stage of my life?’

“I am going back to what I started out as, with less staff overheads. Myself and my wife will run the property business. She does all the administration in the property business and I do the groundwork.

“People often joke that we must have made a fortune during the good days. But I remember sitting down and counting at one stage and there were 14 entities selling property in Castlebar at one point, between solicitors dabbling in it and various different operations and franchises. It was a very crowded market and then 2008 hit and it resulted in a tough five years. We could see the seeds of recovery back in 2013 and it has been growing since.”

Barney, son of Barney and Monica Kiernan, went on: “Twenty-three years ago we opened in Castlebar. It was the day my youngest lad, Shane, was born. The following July we opened up with the EBS.

“We had an office in Swinford prior to that. I started in the auctioneering business in 1993. I have seen a lot of changes and comings and goings in that time.

“We had laid the foundations in Swinford. People wondered why I opened in Swinford. It was because of a lot of family connections. My mother Monica’a family are from there and my wife Fiona’s father Val Donegan was from there. The connections were there and my uncle had an insurance and auctioneering business for many years.

“It was great groundwork dealing with farmers and small plots of land and stuff. It was a good education.

“Later we saw the opportunity to open in Castlebar and we kept the two offices going for about two years, but it got too much of a stretch. Castlebar was beginning to hop so we decided to consolidate everything into Castlebar and a year later we took on the EBS agency.

“At the time we were dabbling at everything – commercial sales, residential, valuation work and a lot of residential letting as well. Now we have got out of that side of the business as it was very time consuming.

“Now we leave that to the specialist agencies and we concentrate solely on sales. We do a certain amount of commercial leases but it is mainly sales.

“We had been involved in the running of the EBS agency in Swinford. At the time it was a small building society with about eight offices in Mayo. But with the banking crisis everything shrank and we ended up being the only EBS agency in Mayo.”

There has been big change, Barney said, in the auctioneering business in the past 18 months. “But typically Mayo was the last market practically to recover,” he added. “Everything started in Dublin and drifted down. We have seen movement in prices but there is not a lot of new stuff out there. Builders will tell you that prices are not at a level yet where it is economical for them to build. There is no margin.

“Buyers out there now are looking at second-hand houses. One trend we do see, which is refreshing, is that the younger buyers now are looking at older properties to refurb, and that is a lovely trend to see. Five or 10 years ago if you asked a person to look at an old house they would run a mile.

“This is probably driven by the popular TV refurb programmes. It is lovely to see as there are some quality properties in the town (Castlebar), big sites with great locations.

“We did it ourselves last year. After 18 years, we moved back into town from Snugboro to Rathbawn. I am delighted to see people coming back into town and buying the old properties.”

Barney, who originally qualified as a teacher, explained: “I saw a great example of that when we sold an early Victorian house earlier in the year to a guy at Mountain View. It had fallen into complete disrepair. He went in after a very tasty refurb, where attention to detail was fabulous.

“It was probably the most viewed property we had online and physically in the 25 years I have been in the business. There was phenomenal interest. It was an eye-opener for me. It attracted a total demographical mix - young couples and retired people across the board looking at it.

“I saw a demand there that I did not realise existed. People are now beginning to look at older properties and redo them. A lot of this is inspired by the TV refurb shows.

“If these houses go on the market now they are snapped up quickly. A lot of derelict houses are being taken up and refurbished, which is great for the town.”

 

Kiernan Auctioneers and Valuers can be contacted on (094) 9025800 or (087) 2617054, or visit www.castlebarproperty.com.