A Surrey office building that had been on the market for a year sold for £1m above its guide price at Allsop’s final commercial auction of the year.
The 14,105 sq ft freehold property in New Malden sold for £3.7m off a guide of £2.5m to £2.7m, representing a 5.2% gross yield.
Overall sales from the smaller- than-usual 125-lot catalogue, were £59.7m – less than October’s £101.5m and last December’s £79.9m. The success rate was 85%.
Allsop partner and auctioneer Duncan Moir said that the industry was in “limbo” and that sellers were holding on to stock in the hope that the market would continue to improve over the next six months.
He said: “The market is drawing breath at the moment.” However, the success rate was “encouraging” and meant Allsop’s yearly average would be “pushing 90%”, he added.
Other highlights included a leasehold 39,458 sq ft office building in Basingstoke, Hampshire, with no reserve that sold for £605,000 after bidding started at £5,000.
The property is part let to multiple tenants and generates an income of £215,293 pa – a gross yield of £35.6%.
Moir said the lot had been difficult to price partly owing to its liabilities including ground rent, and was in a location with low demand. Having no reserve “was a strategy that worked very well”.
Ten properties sold for more than £1m, including a freehold leisure park containing three restaurants in Barking, E6, that sold for £2.3m with a gross yield of 7%.
A leasehold post office in Houndsditch, E1, sold for £1.9m – a gross yield of 6.7%.
The sale took place at The Berkeley, SW1, on 8 December.
