A former 17-room Victorian hotel in north London was the highest-priced lot to sell at McHugh & Co’s final sale of the year.
The Five Kings Hotel in Tufnell Park, N7 (pictured), attracted spirited bidding, eventually selling for £1.7m off a guide price of £1.5m.
It was one of 68 lots sold at the 3 December auction at the Montcalm Hotel, W1, from a total of 75 offered – equating to a success rate of 91% – raising a total of £16.2m.
“The room was extremely busy, and there was strong competition on most of the lots,” said James McHugh, an auctioneer at McHugh & Co. “We usually have a catalogue of between 50 and 100 properties, so the number of lots offered was pretty standard for us, but we are very pleased with the way things went on the day and to get a success rate of more than 90%.”
Another lot that attracted a flurry of bids was a detached bungalow with extensive gardens in Edgware, north London, which was sold on behalf of executors for £955,000 off a guide price of £875,000.
McHugh said that the auction house had not noticed any reduction in volumes due to the General Election or ongoing Brexit saga.
“The fact that our catalogue is predominantly residential seems to be helping us at the moment,” he added. “Commercial investors might well be tempted to wait until the February auctions to sell because their properties are still bringing in income and they might achieve a better price.
“If you have an empty house, on the other hand, you want to get it sold as quickly as possible to avoid maintenance issues over the winter.”
