Property prices in Galway city have risen about 10 per cent in the last year says Colm O'Donnellan, one half of the Galway-based agency O'Donnellan and Joyce, which has run about seven auctions of bank-owned and private properties per annum.

The next one takes place on July 24th at the Harbour Hotel on Galway's docks and features about 50 properties, residential and commercial, mainly from counties Donegal and Galway, but the agency is broadening its base to take in counties Mayo, Clare and Roscommon.

In this auction about 30 per cent of the properties are bank sales. O’Donnellan says demand is high for homes in Galway city, especially apartments, but also on the books are several far more isolated properties, all in need of serious modernisation.

In these parts of rural Ireland prices are way down, O’Donnellan says.

Three properties going under the hammer are all off the beaten track and all carry an advised minimum value of €35,000.

Glengest, a townland about 13 km from Ardara, one of the region’s most authentic towns, is situated on the Donegal town road, a mountainous route through some of the most rural parts of the county. This two-bedroom traditional thatched house 71sq m (765sq ft) in size, is a slice of old Ireland.

Further south, but staying in Donegal, is a three-bedroom, 102sq m detached house, a more modern version of the same house style, in Coolshannon, situated on the old Donegal town to Killybegs road.

It is about 12.5km from Donegal and 6km beyond Mountcharles.

In Co Galway, a two-bedroom 120sq m detached cottage in Gortramannagh, 5km from Kilchreest, a village that is 6km from Loughrea, is another option.

odonnjoyce.com