Allsop raised £82m at its largest commercial sale since March 2008 as prices for grade A stock went up, driving yields down.
Demand for well-located prime properties with long leases let to tenants with strong covenants caused yields to harden from 5.75% to 5.6%. Returns on B grade stock were static at 7.9%.
The sale, on 7 July at London’s Berkeley hotel, SW1, achieved an 81% success rate as 125 out of 155 lots were sold. It raised almost a third more than the last sale in May, which raised £57m.
Multilet properties requiring intensive management proved to be harder to sell in the room as demand was suppressed by lenders’ reluctance to finance them.
“Sentiment, generally, was terrific,” said auctioneer Duncan Moir. “Between February and July last year we raised £230m, but this fantastic result takes our total raised by July this year to £270m. To have realised more than a quarter of a billion pounds so far this year makes the summer look much more appealing.
“Hopefully, the growth in the size of our catalogue will mark a turn in the road for the supply of property.”
Several portfolios sold under the hammer, including six Coral betting shops, which were expected to raise around £2m. They achieved £2.8m, producing an average yield of 5.78%.
Seven petrol stations, which were expected to make around £14m, sold for £14.4m and produced an average yield of 6.85%.
Three multilet units and residential ground-rents sited around Warren Street and Whitfield Street, off Tottenham Court Road, WC1, were estimated to achieve around £2.9m. They raised £3.2m.
