The latest Acuitus commercial property auction raised £27m with a sale rate of 84%.
A freehold retail and residential parade on Mare Street in London’s Hackney sold under the hammer for £3.45m at a yield of 6.0%. The 10,630 sq ft property at 239-249 Mare Street comprises a mixed used investment of three restaurants with office and residential accommodation on the upper floors.
Charlie Powter of Acuitus comments: “We had described this property as a ‘Hackney Diamond’, a sentiment which our bidders certainly agreed with. Assets of this size having asset management potential, and location within a vibrant part of the Capital, are a rare opportunity for investors and all this combined to lead to a successful sale”.
Three trade counter assets let to Travis Perkins were sold for a combined price of £3.31m with the strongest yield of 5.5% and an average yield of 6.0%.
David Margolis of Acuitus comments: “Trade counter investments have seen a lot of investor interest over the past couple of years, with buyers looking for investments with strong covenants and reliable revenue streams. We expect this trend to continue for some time”.
Elsewhere in the auction, a prominent ground floor leasehold retail investment in London’s Southwark at 18 Great Suffolk Street sold for £1.98m. The current tenants are Sainsbury’s and Costa Coffee.
In Aberdeen, all three lots sold successfully including a heritable business centre investment at Waterloo Quay offered on behalf of administrators which achieve £1.35m after determined competitive bidding.
Mhairi Archibald comments: “An investment of this size gives the new owners the significant opportunity to actively manage the income and expenditure and maximise occupation and net income”.
In the Reading area, two office park investments sold at the auction for a combined total of £1.95m along with a retail parade in Woodley which sold just prior to auction in line with its guide price of £3m. John Mehtab of Acuitus comments: “These results show the important role auctions play, both in terms of pricing assets accurately, and also in crystallising buyer interest and converting this into definite sales”.
A Grade A office building of 37,000 sq ft on the prestigious Vanwall Business Park Maidenhead sold just prior to the auction in line with its guide price of £2.75m. Jon Skerry of Acuitus comments: “This sale continued our success in harnessing serious and credible investor interest in the office sector. There is definitely a strong following for assets such as these from the latest breed of experienced buyers who recognise the value to be extracted from vacant ex-institutional office buildings”.
Acuitus Chairman, Richard Auterac, commented: “Measured against the somewhat downbeat news coming out of capital markets businesses elsewhere this was an exceptional result for our clients and follows on from the upbeat results Acuitus has recorded over the last 6 months”.
“The successful results achieved through our auctions for assets in a range of property sectors located across the UK illustrates the latent strength of investor demand. Our clients are working with Acuitus to gain exposure to this demand”.
Instructions are now invited for the next Acuitus broadcast auction of 2023 which will take place on Wednesday December 13th. It will provide online, telephone and proxy bidding.
