Savills posted its highest sales total at its auction this week.
The £64.3m haul is a 32% rise from last June’s sale, and a 56% boost from last month’s.
Of the 189 lots offered, eight sold prior to auction and 159 went on the day – an 89% success rate.
The room and surrounding areas were packed full of people, and several properties sparked intense bidding wars.
Director and auctioneer Chris Coleman-Smith said: “There’s a healthy market out there at the moment, and we sold quite a few lots at £1m upwards.
“It was amazing that at 6pm all the chairs were still taken.”
He added that there appeared to be more owner-occupiers bidding than usual.
One of the highlights of the sale was a shop with a one-bedroom maisonette above it in Southwark, SE1. It was guided at £500,000-plus, but sold for £1.1m.
“It’s a hot location [and] interesting that it went to auction,” said Coleman-Smith. “With private treaty, you wouldn’t have dreamed of getting that [price].”
A 560 sq ft stretch of pavement in Islington, N1, sold for £125,000 against a guide price of £4,000.
Another unusual lot was a “major” part of a private island in Anglesey, north Wales, containing a detached bungalow. It was guided at £450,000 and went for £572,000 to a couple from Oxford.
A pub in Bermondsey, SE1, was withdrawn from sale on the day, after a group submitted an asset of community value application under the Localism Act.
The Thomas A Becket pub, where heavyweight boxing champion Henry Cooper trained in the old first-floor gym – along with Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Sugar Ray Leonard – was to be offered as a part-vacant investment let at £84,704 pa, with a guide price of £1.9m.
The 8,500 sq ft property includes a three-floor flat with 12 bedrooms let as separate units.
If councils agree that a property has community value, local groups must be given six months to raise funds for a bid.
