Barnard Marcus enjoyed what it claimed was its biggest sale for more than 10 years, when it sold more than £25.5m worth of stock in London last week (71%).
“The results across the marketplace over the past two or three weeks show what a difficult market it is to read,” said auctioneer Chris Glenn.
And because it was an “absolute fact” that the market “is not as buoyant as it was in the first quarter” and that the volume of buyers was down, the firm had made sure its search for buyers had been “wider and more direct” to compensate.
What was surprising was that there was “no abatement in the appetite or competition in the auction room for the more substantial price range”, said Glenn. “The lots of £300,000 and more were being sold very comfortably,” he said. “They weren’t marginal sales, there was good bidding, good requests for legal documents and good viewing levels.
“If there was any difficulty, it was at the £100,000 to £150,000 mid-range – those that would sell to buy-to-let investors or owner-occupiers,” he added. “It doesn’t quite have the fizz that it has had in previous auctions.”
Although a Grade II-listed office and residential building in Nelson Square, SE1, with permission for change of use to residential was the most valuable lot to sell under the hammer at £1.35m, Glenn also cited two houses in multiple occupancy offered by Ujima Housing Group. A semi in Craven Park, NW10, with development potential was guided at £325,000 but sold for £430,000 while a house in Cranwich Road, N16, made £570,000, against a guide of £380,000.
