Residential property in London locations remained a firm favourite with buyers, selling for strong prices at Barnard Marcus’s spring auction last week.
The sale, at the Grand Connaught Rooms, WC2, raised £13m as 58% of the 165 lots on offer sold.
Some 95 lots were sold in the room, with 19 being traded ahead of the 16 March auction.
Auctioneer Chris Glenn said: “London sales are roaring ahead at the moment. Our sales rates, including some post-auction, in and around the capital, are now touching 70%. There is a wealth of money pushing up prices and yields to 3-5%.
“We are seeing buyers based in and around Greater London being outbid and looking beyond this region to Manchester, Liverpool and other parts of the North, where yields are between 8.5% and 10%.
“They are also buying in Northern Ireland, where yields are well into double-figures. Five out of six distressed lots in this region sold as a result. Everyone is buying for income at the moment.”
Location proved key to the sale of a former council flat in Fulham Road, SW10. It sold for £720,000 off a guide of £650,000.
It also underpinned demand for a former council house in Richmond, Surrey, which after more than 100 viewings sold for £380,000 off a guide price of £290,000.
A cottage in Houghton le Spring, Tyne & Wear, guided at £60,000 made £83,500, while a four-bedroom, semi-detached house in Newry, Northern Ireland, which was guided at £70,000, sold for £89,000.
