Bidders turn on heat
The heatwave was also felt in the auction rooms, writes Charlie Jacoby
MAYBE IT was the temperature, but buyer demand soared at auct i o ns i n J ul y . Investors packed i n t o A n d r e w S c o t t R o b e r t - son’s London sale, pushing prices on vacant London properties well above guides. Among them was the largest lot: 37 Addington Square, Camberwell, SE5. Offered on behalf of a housing association, with a guide price of £850,000, it sparked competition from the opening bid of £825,000, selling for £1.13 million.
The Grade II listed five-storey Georgian house is in a conservation area, overlooking a Regency garden square that was once home to the infamous Richardson gang, rivals of the Krays.
There was an uplift in demand for secondary commercial properties too: a freehold office investment in Sidcup, producing £34,404 pa and guided at £360,000-plus, was sold for £390,000.
Bidders sourced vacant residential lots within the M25, sending success rates to 92 per cent on such stock, with prices averaging at £272,500.
But there was also heated bidding on residential investments, including regulated tenancies, which achieved an average price of £117,750, reflecting an initial yield of 5.6 per cent, while demand for ground rents with more than 80 years left to run on the lease sold strongly for an average yield of 5.4 per cent.
The continuing enthusiasm for land sites in the South East with planning permission for residential development pushedpricestoanaverageof £340,000 and success rates to 75 per cent.
Robin Cripp, ASR’s chairman and principal auctioneer, said: “This was a really ‘hot’ auction and a good note on which to end the first half of the commercial year.
“The atmosphere in the room was bubbling with enthusiasm and we achieved very strong prices, particularly for London properties.”
The Acuitus July commercial property auction raised £33.37 million in the room, at a sale rate of 73 per cent. Of the 42 lots that sold, 11 achieved prices of more than £1 million and the average sale price was close to £800,000.
Auctioneer Richard Auterac comments: “Following the success of our sale in May, this was another strong and progressive auction, with more proper- ties on offer, more buyers in the room and more assets sold.”
The highest price achieved in the room was £3.65 million for the Waterdale Shopping Centre in Doncaster, which exceeded its guide price by more than 80 per cent.
Mr Auterac said: “This is a fascinating example of a complex property which occupies an important town-centre location and badly needs regeneration, but has to change hands in order for it to move to the next stage of its evolution.
The intensity and care of the Acuitus marketing process connected with the growing pool of sophisticated private equity which is looking for fresh opportunities, albeit the eventual buyer was a major regeneration company”.
Top lot at Barnett Ross’s recent sale was a commercial building in Bristol: 40/42 Regent Street, Clifton — which went for £1.21 million against a reserve of less than £1.1 million. A Georgian building with a dental surgery, self-contained offices and parking for up to three cars, it produces £87,000 a year.
Auction House London is reporting bumper half year figures. It sold 1,129 lots in the first six months of the year, more than 20 per cent up on the same period last year, with a success rate of 80.4 per cent, raising nearly £118 million.