An owner occupier snapped up a family home in a conservation area in Cambridge for £1.05m at the latest Savills sale, held on 26 September.
The four-bedroom mid-terrace house in need of modernisation and offering potential for extension, lies in the De Freville Conservation Area and is close to Midsummer Common and the River Cam. It had been guided at £780,000-plus and attracted competitive bidding from owner occupiers and investors.
It was one of four lots to sell for in excess of £1m at the sale, which raised at total of £27m from 87 lots sold. The success rate was 60%.
Other high-value sales included a vacant mixed-use building on Devonshire Road, Chiswick,W4, which sold for £1.4m
The property is arranged as a restaurant with two flats above and was sold with planning permission to adda second floor to create a one bedroom flat.However, seven £1m-plus lots offered on the day remain available, including a residential development opportunity in Wimbledon Park, SW19, guided at £4.5m.
See also: Higher-value lots at Savills point to market upturn
Auctioneer Chris Coleman Smith said caution in the market around the value of new flats was affecting the prices buyers were willing to pay for development opportunities. However, he said a number of sales post-auction were close to being concluded.
Coleman Smith said the biggest change was apparent in the buy-to-let market. “Looking back, the main area where the fizz has gone is the buy-to-let market because the government has stifled it so much. That has had the biggest impact for us. In effect, we are back to a more normal market,” he said. “There are still buy-to-let investors, but not the volume we were seeing four or five years ago when buying rental properties was the stuff of dinner party conversation.”
The sale took place at the London Marriott, W1.
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