Allsop saw the impact of the 3% hike in stamp duty introduced at the start of the month, putting out its smallest catalogue since 2013.
Sales were £52.1m and, out of the 205 lots offered, 157 were sold – a 77% success rate.
The amount raised exceeded last March’s auction, but represented a steep fall from the £76.3m generated last month, when investors clamoured to complete before the 1 April stamp duty rise for buy-to-lets.
As had been expected, fewer properties were offered this month – the smallest number since October 2013.
However, there were some big residential development sites sold, with the largest lot – a freehold 0.5-acre site in Kentish Town, NW5 – raising £6m off a guide of £6m-plus. A 1.7-acre site in Nottingham with planning consent for 350 flats achieved £2.6m, off a £2.8m-plus guide. A conference venue on a 0.1-acre site in Slough, Berkshire, guided at £700,000 to £750,000, was sold for £2m.
Partner and auctioneer Gary Murphy said: “We were aware of a degree of uncertainty in the market leading up to this sale, not least as a result of stamp duty and tax relief changes affecting the buy-to-let sector.”
The new rules will affect investors’ decisions, particularly those with higher borrowing requirements, he said, but the sale was “encouraging overall”, adding there were several significant lots due to exchange post-auction.
The sale took the residential sales total for the 2015-16 financial year to £470m, up from £408m in 2014-15. The average lot size for single vacant units was £522,000 within the M25, £115,000 outside the M25 area and £155,000 across the UK.
The sale took place at the Cumberland Hotel, W1.
