Mid-tier auctioneers Barnett Ross and McHugh & Co sold more than 80% of the lots in their catalogues this week, raising more than £30m between them.
Commercial auctioneer Barnett Ross sold 83%, as low reserves enticed bidders to brave the snowstorms.
It raised £12.8m from 48 lots sold, with 37 finding buyers in the room on 27 March.
The strong demand for shops with flats above seen last year continued. A shop and upper close to Debenhams in Harrow, Middlesex, sold at a 3.3% yield. Producing £25,000 pa, it sold for £755,000 from a reserve of less than £275,000.
The most popular lot prior to auction was a freehold potential development site in Upminster, Essex, offered with vacant possession, which attracted more than 150 applicants to register for the legal pack. It sold for £935,000 from a reserve of less than £175,000.
Trampoline effect
Auctioneer John Barnett said that lots such Harrow and Upminster proved that the “trampoline effect” worked. “Very low reserves attract much more interest and extra bidders,” he said.
The highest price in the room was achieved for a double convenience store let to Tesco, a Chinese takeaway and a fish and chip restaurant, in Ickenham, Middlesex. Producing a combined income of £89,365 pa, it sold for £1.4m, generating a yield of 6.4%. The reserve was less than £1.3m.
At McHugh’s sale on 26 February, the largely residential catalogue raised £19.3m with an 82% success rate.
The highest price achieved was for a Victorian house close to Hampstead Heath, NW3, sold with vacant possession for £2.4m against a guide of £2.2m. Lower Lodge, a three-bedroom house with a self-contained two-bedroom flat, boasts two roof terraces, two balconies and an English Heritage blue plaque in memory of Alfred Reynolds, a Hungarian poet and philosopher who lived there from 1980 to 1993.
Stockwell listed house
In Stockwell, SW8, a Grade II listed house split into a maisonette let to a regulated tenant and two flats let on ASTs sold to an investor for £1.3m, reflecting a yield of 2.5%. The property, guided at £1m, had been in the same family ownership for more than 100 years and was sold by order of executors.
Auctioneer James McHugh said most lots had attracted strong bidding in a busy room. A developer bought a seven-room terrace house in Holloway, N7, in need of modernisation for £885,000 against a guide of £800,000. A lock-up garage in Egham, Surrey, made £37,000 against a guide of just £5,000.
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