Auction houses

Acuitus and Allsop raise millions of pounds from online auction sales




Property auction houses Allsop and Acuitus raised £40m and £13.35m respectively at their May online auctions.

Acuitus sold 73% of the lots offered and auctioneer, Richard Auterac, said it was great credit to its selling clients and the investors for the way they quickly got to grips with the new mode.

“We’ve had very positive feedback to the way the sale was staged and how we sought to create the same environment as the auction room.”

The largest lot of its May sale was a redevelopment site in London’s East Finchley which sold prior for more than £4m.
The 0.33-acre site opposite East Finchley underground station has planning consent for 21 flats. 

The permission also encompasses B1 office use on the ground and lower ground floors.

Another lot was a retail and residential investment in Harrow for £645,000 at a yield of 3.45%.

The Streatfield Road property comprises a shop let on a new 15-year lease at a current rent of £24,000, and a self-contained, four-room maisonette on the upper floors.

A potential development site in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, also attracted interest at the sale.

The unoccupied 6,795 sq ft supermarket, currently let to Booker Retail Partners (GB) until 2037 at a current rent of £80,000, has a 30-space car park at the rear of the property which makes it potentially suitable for either development or a change of use. 

It sold for over £1m at a yield of 7.2% and attracted 204 bids.

Allsop managed a success rate of 88% at its May commercial auction, hosted using its online-only platform, with 13 high-value assets selling for £1m or more.

Some lots received multiple bids in the run up to the auction, with 10 lots raising a total of £16.8m selling prior to the day, including lot 19 in Tottenham, which sold at £7m.

The highest-value investment on the day was 774 Barking Road, in London, an attractive property comprising two ground-floor shops, two offices and three flats. 

The investment sold for £2.05m, well over the guide price of £1.7m.

George Walker, partner and auctioneer at Allsop, said: “May’s commercial auction has now added £40m to our sales during lockdown, bringing the total to £75m in a market that has slowed since lockdown started. 
 
“The depth of cash resources from the private investor is always refreshing when the right product is offered at the right price, as is their appetite for opportunity, even in the toughest of times.

“Our clients and buyers have continued to embrace this new way of working with great vigour, and our online platform will give them access to this liquidity for the foreseeable future, with two more auctions in place before the summer break.”

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