The Acuitus commercial property auction raised £20.8m with a success rate of 86%. Nine lots sold for more than £1m, with a coveted Covent Garden office selling for £5.46m at a yield of 4.6%.
The property in Covent Garden’s Endell Street generates £270,000pa and saw significant investor interest in an asset that has not changed ownership for almost 100 years.
Charlie Powter of Acuitus comments: “This is a very interesting investment we were selling for a Cambridge University College. It is let to an international design practice for 99 years from 1982 with five yearly reviews to 60% of market rental value. It is the largest lot we have sold in the room so far in 2025.”
The strength of the results was driven by the popularity of seven freehold assets in Nottingham which all sold, raising £10.595m, some 30% above valuation for Nottingham City Council. Considerable interest was shown both locally and nationally and on the day there were 79 registered bidders across the range of assets.
The full results with net initial yields after deduction of all purchasers costs include:
John Mehtab of Acuitus comments: “We are delighted with the results from these lots, and are especially pleased to have worked with Nottingham City Council to bring these well managed assets to auction and tapping into a very competitive investor market”.
In Staines-upon-Thames, the freehold of a motor-trade roadside investment close to the River Thames, let to Halfords, sold for £940,000 at a yield of 5.1%, while a mixed-use fully let retail and residential investment in Wokingham town-centre sold for £1.2m at a yield of 8.08%.
David Margolis of Acuitus comments: “Despite some questions around investor sentiment at the start of the year, we are seeing that secure income assets with mid-term development potential in locations which are economically resilient, such as these in Staines and Wokingham, are extremely popular and the auction process allows sellers to extract maximum value out of their sale”.
Richard Auterac, Chairman of Acuitus comments: “The results from our first auction of the year, 17% more than our auction last February, has been driven by a good number of sought-after assets. Assets that have secure income and future capital growth potential will always attract maximum interest from those motivated buyers in today’s market who have the fire power and wherewithal to commit.
“The average lot size sold in the room was £1.29m. As stated at our recent client conference there is no shortage of equity but rather a shortage of quality investable stock. There are some significant pools of investor wealth looking for assets with income resilience and capital growth potential. This shows the importance of how we engage with our buying clients throughout the auction process, working with them and ensuring that they are fully empowered to bid at our live -streamed auctions.”
The next Acuitus auction will take place on March 27th at 1pm and will be broadcast via livestream on the Acuitus website with bidding online, by telephone and by proxy.
