Commercial auction sales dropped by 8.5% in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2016, the latest data shows.
Sales of commercial property fell from £564.5m in H1 2016 to £516.3m in H1 this year, according to Essential Information Group.
The second quarter accounted for the bulk of the drop, with a £30m (9.7%) fall, from £301m to £271m, in the total raised.
However, the average commercial auction success rate stands at 85.5% for January to June compared with 72.5% for residential.
Residential sales fell by 8.3% in the first six months, from £1.7bn to £1.6bn, but saw better results than the commercial sector during the second quarter with a drop of only 0.9% from £786m to £779m.
Essential Information Group director David Sandeman said: “Having witnessed commercial lot volumes increase throughout the first quarter of 2017, it is slightly surprising to see those trends reversed in the second quarter, with the number of lots offered and sold down by 10% on Q2 2016.
Now that the dust has settled after the election, one hopes that the market strengthens again through the second half
“One contributing factor could have been the furore surrounding the General Election. Now that the dust has settled, one hopes that the market strengthens again through the second half,” he said.
This already seems to be happening, with Acuitus showing a strong result at its 13 July sale, where it raised £56m, up from £37.4m in June.
Chairman and auctioneer Richard Auterac said buyers would be keen to achieve something in the next few months.
“Last week’s sale was extremely good, and gave a foretaste of what we can expect from the second half,” he said.
He added: “We had an exceptional 2016, and we expected to be down in the first six months of this year.”
A number of auction houses bucked the downward trends that were seen in the first half of this year.
Commercial auctioneers Pugh & Co and Barnett Ross increased their total raised by 48.7% and 18.7% respectively. Pugh & Co managing director Paul Thompson said: “The North is exerting a pulling power over Southern and international property investors, who are looking for value for money and to exploit the cheaper property prices at auction up here.
“At Pugh, we have felt this particularly strongly in the North West, with an almost 50% growth in the total raised at our auctions over the past 12 months.”
In residential, Andrews & Robertson and Pattinson increased their total raised by 14.6% and 16.9% respectively.
David Callaghan
