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Mothers and daughters arrived clutching bags of shopping. Children played between rows of carefully laid-out chairs. Elderly ladies sipped cups of complimentary tea. At times, the AUsop Space auction in Ireland inore closely resembled a family dayout than a property sale.
Over the course of eight sales at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, this style of multi-lot auction has pulled in droves of locals to bid and buy, or to just watch the market set a price.
The sales have been a new experience for Irish buyers more used to single-lot auctions, and have made buying a reality again after the once-mighty Celtic Tiger economy suffered one of the worst financial crises since the Great Depression.
The latest auction on S October raised eurol7.8m (Ü14.3m) off a success rate of 93%. It attracted 2,700 people - the largest number since the first Allsop Space auction in April 2011, which memorably included a man with a microphone taking bids in the street.
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