Colliers Conrad Ritblat Erdman sold all 680 lock-up garages offered by Oldham council at its £1.4m auction at Haydock park last week. The garages comprised 59 of the 83 lots offered, 79 of ehich found buyers (96%).
Auctioneer Simon Riggall said his firm had been trying to persuade authorities that they should sell off their garages in blocks or as a portfolio, rather than transferring them with housing stock.
“The private landlord is also often better at dealing with them than an authority,” he said, citing the example of one investor who owns 13,00 garages.
The firm’s London auction this week raised more than £10m.
Prices ranged from £2,000 for a block of four garages in Turner Street, Oldham, producing £120 pa to £40,000, to a site of 80 garages with vacant land at the rear of Abbeyhills Road, Glodwick Lows, Oldham, which produces £2,400pa.
Riggall described the sale as “one of our typical catalogues with everything from pony paddocks right through to big ground rents”, some of which saw yields as low as 3%. Of the 77 lots offered, 65 sold (85%).