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The property auctions market looks like it is staying strong until the end of the year. The Andrews & Robertson November sale, held at the Montcalm Hotel Marble Arch, London brought the total raised for the year by the firm to more than £90 million, with an average success rate of 75 per cent.
A varied catalogue of stock by value and location, with lots spread from Birkenhead to Brentford, showed there is still demand for well-priced stock. Landlords and developers bid hard for good-quality residential development and investment opportunities — particularly those with planning permission.
One freehold end-of-terrace property on Mount Nod Road in Streatham, south west London, offered with planning permission to excavate and further extend the property, attracted strong interest from several bidders. Guided at £500,000, the property sold for £630,000.
Other highlights included 60 Orchard Road in Brentford, Middlesex, a freehold two-floor terraced house in the same ownership for more than 18 years and offered with full vacant possession. Guided at £450,000, it sold for £475,000. Highlight of Acuitus’s December 7 sale: Sainsbury’s, Broxbourne, producing £70,000 pa, guided at £1.2 million
Robin Cripp, chairman and auctioneer at Andrews & Robertson, says: “While the results were not as strong as we have come to expect, a number of lots achieved excellent values in the room. Bidder appetite was strong for both the London and regional stock, and lots with realistic reserves attracted motivated buyers and achieved good sale prices. We are confident going into our final auction of 2017 that demand for good quality, wellpriced stock remains strong.”
The auction firms have launched their catalogues for the last sales of 2017. Acuitus’s catalogue for yesterday’s sale consisted of 80 lots including retail, office, industrial, ground rent and leisure assets.
Among them was a 32,100 sq ft Marks & Spencer in Lowestoft, producing rent of £245,170 a year.
There was also a Sainsbury’s with car park in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, producing £70,000 a year. Guide was £1.2 million.
Lambert Smith Hampton’s auction on December 11 includes more than 50 properties, on behalf of executors, joint LPA receivers, major UK banks, mortgagees in possession, trustees and the Homes & Communities Agency, as well as a number of local councils.
Among the lots is 2,130 sq ft freehold office building with redevelopment potential in London WC2, which is guided at £1.575 million. Part vacant, the property currently produces £15,500 a year. EDITED BY CHARLIE JACOBY
THE staircase is dead. Now it is all about the middle-age spread. Downsizers in particular want large, lateral open-plan living and entertaining areas, with hi-tech security and gadgets. That is the message from interior designer Banda Design Studio. Banda’s SeeBeng Ng says: “Lateral space flows generously from one area to the next. It does not restrict, dictate or define.” Kate Donneky, director of Rhodium Residence Management, is seeing a rise in the use of overseas architects and interior designers in London projects, saying: “Developers are keen to distinguish their designs and are more confident to use new consultants who have no [previous] exposure to the London residential market.” Open-plan living space in west London, by Banda Design Studio