The latest Acuitus/IPD cPad Commercial Property Auction Market Flash shows that there was a 64% increase in total sales volume for the auctions in July, compared with the corresponding period last year.
A total of £134.5m of commercial property assets sold at the major July auctions with an average lot price of £623,000.
Retail assets dominated the sales, accounting for 81% of the properties sold. Investors are still showing an appetite for assets outside of London with 78% of the properties sold during the July auction season being located outside of the capital compared with 69% in May 2014.
Acuitus Auctioneer, Richard Auterac, commented: “The message from the latest round of auctions is generally positive with volumes, sale rates and average lot sizes all increasing.
“Strengthening demand and increased risk appetite is stimulating the supply of investment stock to the auction room, particularly financially distressed assets that offer good active management opportunities.”
Colm Lauder, Senior Associate at IPD added: “The sharper yields achieved by assets with shorter income profiles would seem to indicate that investors are now more prepared to take a positive view of assets that may require active management but are not perceived to present as much risk as previously”.
cPad is a joint initiative between Acuitus and IPD, and utilises auction sales data from EIG to provide a unique perspective on the commercial property market for investors. It creates a valuable snapshot of today’s market and draws on economic analysis by IPD to set the market in a broader context.
In the latest cPad, the IPD ‘Economic Scorecard’, which monitors the economic health of consumers and retailers, The Economic Score Card Average rose to its highest level in July 2014 as the UK economy recovers to what is considered close to a ‘Fully Functioning Market’.
The strong position is representative of the improvements in the broader UK economy as consistent growth continued nationwide.
Download the latest cPad Market Flash here
