A freehold retail and office investment in London’s Finchley sold for £5.785m as the latest Acuitus auction raised £37.723m.
Sovereign House in Ballard’s Lane N3 is a 16,969 sq ft multi-let building which currently produces £382,931pax in income. It was offered with a guide price of £3.9m but sustained bidding saw it sell at a price reflecting a yield of 6.2%.
A total of 13 lots in the July auction commanded prices of more than £1m with the average sale price for the 38 lots sold being £992,000.
Acuitus auctioneer, Richard Auterac, commented: “There is enormous pent-up buyer demand out there. When you can bring to market the sort of good quality lots that this auction offered, there will be tremendous investor interest.
“Auctions have become one of the most efficient and productive market places for properties in the £1m-£10m bracket and as yesterday’s sale demonstrates there is more than enough buyer demand both domestically and internationally for assets of the scale of Sovereign House.
“Sellers really should not ignore the present opportunities to access these new sources of private equity.”
The next biggest price achieved at the sale was for an international language school investment in Poole Road, Bournemouth. Currently producing income of £202,937pax with annual fixed 2.5% rental uplifts, the 11,882-sq ft property sold for £2.25m.
All of the London properties offered in the auction found buyers with a freehold bank investment at 408 Holloway Road N7 occupied by Santander selling for £1.59m at a yield of 4.6%.
Outside of the capital, a freehold coffee shop investment in Brighton’s Ship Street, which is let until 2024 at a current rent of £27,000pax, sold for £515,000 at a yield of 4.9%.
In Godalming, a 12,344 sq ft industrial building currently occupied by Vision Express but with future residential redevelopment potential sold for £865,000.
Richard Auterac comments: “Properties with a residential angle – whether it is those with an existing residential component or the future scope to create one – are proving very attractive to investors”.
A 0.15-acre site next to the M4 in Brentford with planning permission for five flats, a showroom and two advertising hoardings sold for £1.25m.
Other sales at the auction included:
The fifth Acuitus auction of 2014 will take place on October 23rd at the Millennium Hotel, London W1.
