Academic research collaboration

Field evidence from real online property negotiations

DCU Business School Assistant Professor Damien Dupré and Beagel's Healy Hynes analysed anonymised platform records from 574 multi-participant property negotiations involving 2,148 unique buyers.

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Title
Characterising Online Private Treaty Negotiations: Field Evidence from Irish Residential Property

Authors
Damien Dupré, DCU Business School
Healy Hynes, Beagel

Presented
March 26, 2026

Forum
Irish Economic Association, Behavioural Economics Network

574

multi-participant property negotiations

2,148

unique buyers in the analysed data

2018–2024

period covered by the platform records

active participants required for the research cohort

Research cohort reported in the March 26, 2026 presentation after filtering for negotiations with two or more participants.

Why this research matters

Moving the debate from simulation to observed market behaviour

Previous research has examined how transparent bidding mechanisms may influence perceived fairness and bidding behaviour. This collaboration makes detailed records from live negotiations available for descriptive academic analysis.

Field data

The analysis is based on events generated during real Irish residential property negotiations, rather than a simulated bidding exercise.

Granular records

Time-stamped platform records make it possible to study negotiation structure, participation and progression at a level unavailable in conventional agent-mediated processes.

Public-interest relevance

The work contributes evidence to the discussion about transparency, trust, competition and buyer behaviour in residential property transactions.

Reported descriptive findings

What the platform records show

Competition varies sharply

Most analysed properties attracted two or three active bidders, while a long tail of highly contested negotiations was also observed.

Offer increments cluster

Most increments were modest and right-skewed, with repeated use of EUR1,000, EUR2,500 and EUR5,000 jumps and occasional much larger increases.

Responses often arrive quickly

Most responses occurred within hours, although some negotiations extended over weeks.

Participation and premium are associated

Negotiations with more participants showed higher final price premiums. The researchers describe this association as consistent with competitive-arousal dynamics.

These are descriptive and correlational findings reported by the authors. They do not establish that using Beagel causes a particular price outcome.

Evidence boundary

What can be said today

The presentation reports descriptive and correlational field evidence from anonymised transactional records. It describes the work as the first descriptive field evidence on the structure and dynamics of online private-treaty negotiations in Ireland.

The analysis does not establish causal effects. The observed association between participation and price premium may reflect competition, property characteristics, market conditions or other factors. Beagel does not present the research as a guarantee of transaction outcomes.

View the Source Presentation

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