The latest Acuitus commercial property auction raised £16.08m with a sale rate of 84%.
A fully let retail parade, including significant upper parts, at 13-25 Milton Street in the heart of Nottingham sold for £2.125m at a yield of 9.3%. Two other industrial Nottingham assets were sold at the auction, including: Lenton Lane Industrial Estate, a rarely offered electricity generation facility that sold for £1.47m; and an industrial estate on Gamble Street for £1.37m – with yields of 4.6% and 7.2% respectively. Across the portfolio there were 30 bidders comprising both regional and national investors.
John Mehtab of Acuitus comments: “These properties were each in their own right, prime assets within their respective sectors: retail, infrastructure, and industrial. We saw significant investor interest for all the lots with competitive bidding on each asset”.
Elsewhere, a modern neighbourhood centre in Newton Abbot, Devon sold for £1.96m at a yield of 7.3%. Situated in a new urban extension to the town and mostly let to the Co-op, the property offered five-yearly CPI-linked rental increases across the four tenants.
Jon Skerry of Acuitus comments: “The provision of local amenities including shopping as an integral part of any new development scheme is a fundamental requirement and developers will be encouraged that once developed there is such strong demand from investors”.
High Street retail assets, often with ancillary residential income in the form of ASTs or ground rents, continue to be popular in the auction room with a number, including assets in Southampton, and Lincoln, selling prior to auction.
David Margolis of Acuitus comments: “What we are seeing is that the auction market is allowing sellers to access a much wider range of buyers than ever before. They are motivated and many are able to perform as soon as marketing begins, once again highlighting the certainty of the auction contract”.
A modern purpose-built student accommodation investment, situated at 75 Montague Road in Cambridge, sold for £1.6m at a yield of 7%. The property comprised of 14 single en-suite rooms and four twin en-suite rooms.
Charlie Powter of Acuitus comments: “Much has been written about the growth in demand from institutional investors in the PBSA sector and it is good to be able to make these available, albeit in smaller lot sizes, to our high net worth investors”.
Acuitus Chairman, Richard Auterac, commented: “Once again at the start of the year we are seeing a diversity of demand from across a wide range of buyers looking to invest in property sectors which offer a range of risk and return criteria, which is really encouraging as we move into 2024.
“We expect to see increased momentum from sellers and buyers as price expectations become more closely aligned for the larger and more complex assets in which Acuitus specialises”.
Instructions are being invited for the next Acuitus broadcast auction of 2024 which will take place on Wednesday March 27th. It will provide online, telephone and proxy bidding.
