The Irish part of the joint Allsop Ireland venture has bought out London-headquartered auction house Allsop.

In the deal, Space Property Group has bought out Allsop’s interest for around €4m and renamed the company BidX1. It will hold auction sales purely online, and launch into the UK market within weeks.

The Allsop Ireland partnership was set up in 2011.

As Allsop Space, it held some huge and high-profile ‘fire’ sales after the crash of the Irish property market. One sale had to be called off after demonstrators protested against what they claimed were family homes which had been repossessed by banks being sold to investors, including from the UK and overseas.

Allsop Space subsequently went on to develop technology allowing it to host online auctions.

It has done so successfully, with the latest accounts showing profits of just under €1.1m.

The new entity, BidX1, is led by Steve McCarthy. The business plans to hold what it says will be Europe’s biggest online property auction at the end of September, featuring some 350 lots.

It also says it plans to hold two UK online property auctions by the end of this year.

It will use an Irish estate agency’s proptech platform, with the entire business operating online.

The Irish agent is Hunters – based in Dublin and an entirely separate business from the group headquartered in York.