Six lots sold for more than £2m at Acuitus’ auction yesterday.
The sale raised £37.1m and achieved a success rate of 71%, with 48 of the 68 lots offered selling. Forty sold in the room and three prior.
A GAP store in Brighton, East Sussex, sold for £2.8m, and there was sustained bidding for a Carluccio’s restaurant in Reigate, Surrey, which sold for £1.3m – a yield of 4.1%.
The two highest prices achieved in the sale were £3m for Units 11-15 at the Portland Walk shopping centre in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and the £2.9m paid for an Iceland Lewisham, SE13.
The Thomas A Becket pub on Old Kent Road, SE1, where legendary British boxer Henry Cooper used to train in a gym upstairs, sold for £2.4m. The pub’s upper parts are made up of four flats, and the sale reflected a yield of 5.5%.
Acuitus chairman Richard Auterac said: “This auction vividly illustrated the opportunities for sellers who have properties that are in the £1m-£5m bracket and demonstrated the characteristics that our major investors and property companies are looking for. These buyers are not constrained by sector or location, and this is creating a hugely conducive environment for selling.
“The only factor that is constraining our sector at the present is the supply of the right type of asset. This sale demonstrated the breadth of investor demand and while some property transactions may be on the back burner in the run-up to the election, there is little evidence of this in the auction room.”
A freehold bank in Carlisle, Cumbria, let to Lloyds Bank on a new 15-year lease with no breaks and producing £63,650 pa, sold for £1.1m – a yield of 5.4%, while a 26,000 sq ft Wilko in Rhyl, Clwyd, let until 2026 and producing £275,000 pa, sold for £2.5m.
A Sainsbury’s in Chard, Somerset, with a tenant’s break next year, sold for nearly £2.3m – a yield of 7.8%.
The auction took place at the Radisson Blu Portman hotel, W1.
