Cash-rich overseas investors looking for British property at keen prices boosted the result at Cushman & Wakefield’s auction this week.
The success rate at the 24 May sale at BAFTA on Piccadilly, W1, closed at 73% as 27 out of 37 lots sold, including four prior, pushing receipts to just over £18m.
Auctioneer John Townsend said: “I think there is a lot of ‘currency play’ from overseas buyers who see UK-based property as being comparatively cheap while the euro is weak. The appetite for long-let, well leased properties remains very strong.”
Five tyre and exhaust centre investments, guaranteed by Kwik-Fit until 2032 and offered with minimum fixed uplifts in 2012 and 2017, sold for a combined total of £4.3m. This reflected an average yield of 5.1%.
The sharpest yield in the portfolio, at 4.4%, was achieved on an investment in Hall Green, Birmingham. It sold for £550,000 from a guide of £420,000-£430,000.
Highlights included six sale-and-leaseback London pubs, offered by Enterprise Inns on new 35-year leases.
They sold for £7.1m – an average yield of 6.2%. The highest price was achieved on the Marquis of Westminster pub in Pimlico, SW1, which was guided at £1.2m-£1.3m and sold for £1.5m, a net yield of 5.6%.
Other notable sales included a Barclays bank sale-and-leaseback in Flint, Wales. The property, let to the bank for 20 years at £34,000 pa, sold for £500,000 – a 6.4% yield.
A convenience store in Blackpool, Lancashire – let to T&S Stores until 2020 at £29,000 pa – sold for £490,000 off a guide of £420,000-£430,000, while a Greggs bakery in Doncaster sold for £790,000 off a guide of £725,000.
