In a day of mixed fortunes, Hillyers realised just over £2m in the room, rising to £3m with post-sale purchases, at their October auction.
A 75,000-sq ft Ideal Home superstore standing on a 4-acre site in Cannock, Staffordshire, fetched the highest price at the auction, reaching £740,000 after some lively bidding. The free-hold development yields £176,160 pa, rising to £226,780 pa in 1988.
The next highest prices were achieved by two London residential properties. A freehold semi-detached house with full vacant possession at 77 Highbury Hill, Highbury, N5, sold for £300,000. Another vacant freehold semi-detached residence at 50 Broad Walk, South Woodford, E18, went for £170,500.
It is ironic that two of the highest prices achieved should be for London residential buildings in the light of the fact that over half of the 48 lots of the 104-lot catalogue which failed to sell were London residential properties.
Auctioneer Stuart Oram acknowledges the contradiction. “We are aware that other firms have not been having completely successful auctions and I think this was just another spin-off.”
But why should London residential properties be hit? None of the lots on offer could be described as being at the top end of the market, the sector that is most likely to be hit by the stock market crash. “Some of them might have been speculative deals with too quick a turn-around and an over-enhanced price, I don’t know,” admits Mr Oram.
However, he does point out that genuine possessions with realistic reserves were selling at considerably more than their reserve prices. “There were just too many vacant properties,” he concludes.
