Buyers Flood the Allsop Commercial Auction (20/10/2009)
as they Achieve a 93% Success Rate
Allsop’s latest Commercial auction at The Park Lane Hotel on Piccadilly witnessed one of the busiest auction rooms for some time with some extremely competitive bidding for all 136 lots offered. A total of £83.2 million was raised, reflecting a success rate of over 93%, making it the biggest October commercial property auction since 2006.
To date the sale proceeds from this year’s five sales total £369 million (£274million in 2008) with an average success rate of 88% of all lots offered sold. The volume of lots offered and sold in these sales have provided us with a unique and unrivalled knowledge of buyers currently in the market. Our growing database of under bidders is testament to the considerable depth of cash seeking property investments at present
Some notable highlights from our October auction include:
Average retail yield 6.88% (6.5% in July)
Average lot size £660,760 (£657,612 in July)
24 lots sold over £1 million, 9 of which were over £2 million (27 in July with 5 over £2m).
43 lots achieved yields at or below 6%, 16 of which were below 5% (31 lots in July, 14 below 5%).
6 prime freehold public house investments on behalf of Enterprise Inns plc sold reflecting an average lot size of £2.567m and NIY 5.71%.
11 bank investments sold reflecting an average lot size of £845,227 and NIY of 5.16%.
Significant lots included:
Largest lot was Lot 89 Chelsea. A Public House let to Enterprise Inns Plc at £190,000pa on new 35 year lease, Sold for £3.33m (5.4%).
Other notable sales included
Lot 74 Henley On Thames. Well located shop let to WHSmith until 2024. Sold for £1.845m (5.13%).
Lot 77 Bishops Stortford. Restaurant let to Ask until 2029. Sold for £1.25m (5.86%).
Lot 82 Percy Street Fitzrovia. Attractive multi let Office and Residential Investment Sold for £1.59m (5.98%).
Duncan Moir, Partner and auctioneer for Allsop comments “The atmosphere in the room was simply electric and reminiscent of the rooms we saw at the top of the market. A wide range of cash rich buyers together with a limited supply of properties and realistic pricing resulted in us achieving prices under the hammer, on average 15% above their reserves. With the continuing low interest rates offered on cash deposits, buyers are still more plentiful than sellers.”
He continues “A noticeable trend was the closing of the yield gap between the well let lots and the secondary lots and riskier income flows, with the gap between the average retail yield for A and B grade income reducing from 3.3% in July to 2.04% (2.5% in May).”
Notes to Editor
View the results here,, or for details of the unsold lots which are still available view here.
Our next two auctions will be held on 3rd December and 10th February 2010 and ideally we would like entries confirmed by Friday 30th October and Friday 8th January respectively.
Further details about Allsop and the auction are available at www.allsop.co.uk
Allsop LLP Commercial Auction Team
www.allsop.co.uk
For further information please contact:
Duncan Moir
Equity Partner
Allsop
DL +44 (0)20 7543 6704
Email duncan.moir@allsop.co.uk