After strong instructions in the first half of its catalogue, the second half of Harman Healy Residential’s £6.4m auction last week “petered out”. The firm ended the day with an overall success rate of 60%.
Auctioneer Stuart Bishop said the result had been skewed by the failure to sell of six partly completed flats in a development in Luton that were offered separately. Two of the lots have since sold post and Bishop is confident that other post-sales will push up the success rate to 70%.
One lot that was almost not offered yielded one of the more surprising results. During the marketing period, squatters were evicted from a house in Mattison Road, N4, which was then “Sitexed”.
However, viewings were impossible when it was discovered that the Sitex locks had been filled with mastic.
With no viewings, vendor Peabody Trust was tempted to withdraw the lot.
Its decision to proceed with the sale was vindicated when the bidding passed the initial £175,000 guide to finish at £281,000.
