An office block in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, with planning permission for change of use to residential, has been sold on an auction contract for well ahead of its £7m guide price.
The five-floor, 40,000 sq ft block, known as Chester House (lot 32), was sold with prior approval for conversion to 76 flats.
It was due to go into Allsop’s online auction on 24 June but exchanged last Friday, 11 June.
Richard Adamson, partner and residential auctioneer at Allsop, said conversion opportunities were still popular when the “right ones” came up.
“Permitted development has been around for a long time now and many of the best opportunities have been taken, so when you get an opportunity like this, in a great location, there’s a lot of interest,” he said.
More than 200 other lots will be offered in the online auction next week, including 16 guided at £1m-plus.
They include 40 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments offered individually as part of a purpose-built development in Leeds, with guide prices for one-bedroom apartments starting from £15,000, offered on behalf of a receiver. Prices start at £15,000-plus.
In Spitalfields, E1, a freehold terrace building (lot 64) arranged as four flats is also being offered on behalf of a receiver. It is guided at £1.1m. And in Paisley, Renfrewshire, administrators have instructed Allsop to offer a former nursing home on a 1.2-acre site (lot 147), with a £350,000 guide.
However, Adamson said the team was not yet seeing an uptick in the volume of receiverships and repossessions.
“A lot of lenders are giving people more time before they enforce. We expect more [activity] later in the year,” he said
“Once we are completely out of lockdown and furlough has come to an end we will start to see things take their natural shape.”
Other noteworthy assets include lot 35, a freehold semi-detached HMO building with 15 rooms to let in Little Venice, W2, guided at £2.25m- £2.5m and Lot 30, a freehold five-storey building in Ladbroke Grove, W10, arranged to provide five self-contained one-bedroom flats, guided at £1.75m-plus.
Allsop raised more than £42m in May.
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