The Brexit vote has “done the housing market a favour”, according to Savills’ head of auctions Chris Coleman Smith.
Housing sales were dipping anyway and the market was heading for a quieter period, he said.
“The referendum has brought the market to where it was going anyway,” said Coleman Smith. “Brexit has done the market a favour and introduced some reason.” Agents were pricing properties at more realistic levels now, he added.
Savills’ latest auction raised £38.5m with 117 of 184 lots sold – a success rate of 64%. The total was down from £41m at the September sale, when the success rate was 74%. The average selling price was up, with four lots going for more than £1m.
The highest price achieved was for a four-storey semi-detached house with eight rooms in Bayswater, W2, which sold for £3m.
“There was strong bidding on that property. It is a good property in a good area, making it of interest to owner-occupiers and developers,” said Coleman Smith.
A four-storey terraced house in Highbury, N5, sold for £2.28m off a guide of £1.55m. Also, a piece of land in Hackney, E8, with development potential but without planning approval, sold for £202,000 off a guide price of only £50,000.
Land also sold well in the auction, with two plots of farmland near Brighton going for £299,000 and £185,000.
The sale was held on 1 November at the London Marriott Hotel, W1.
