A London development site with planning consent for 25 flats close to the McDonald’s UK head office will be the highest-guided lot at Acuitus’s March auction.
The 0.33-acre site opposite East Finchley Underground station, which includes consent for offices on the ground and lower ground floors, is being offered with a guide price of £4.75m. It will be one of 47 lots to be offered on 26 March.
Acuitus said the sale of the site will be seen as a test of London’s beleaguered residential development market.
“For much of last year, there was muted appetite for London residential development opportunities, but there has been a substantial change of sentiment since the General Election,” said Acuitus auctioneer Richard Auterac. “We expect there to be strong interest in this lot.”
According to Savills Research, values for residential development land plots in urban areas rose slightly at the end of 2019 after a summer dip resulting from Brexit uncertainty which had led to “fewer sites coming forward, slowing transactional activity and deals taking longer to complete leading up to the election”.
However, since then fears have started to grow that a coronavirus outbreak in the UK could exert pressure on the economy, which would also dampen house and land prices.
Acuitus said around 12 of the 47 lots in its March catalogue would be guided at more than £1m.
Other key lots include an Iceland supermarket in Alfreton, Derbyshire, with an annual rent of £118,920 guided at £1.75m; a 16,700 sq ft warehouse in Portsmouth which is being sold by the Duchy of Cornwall with a guide price of £1.9-£2m; a high street shop in Guildford, Surrey, let to Estée Lauder Cosmetics until 2027 which produces £105,000 a year and is guided at £1.65-£1.7m; and a vacant former bank with six flats above in Greenford, Greater London, guided at £1.4m.
The Acuitus auction will take place on 26 March at The Montcalm Hotel, London, W1.
