Enthusiastic bidding on UK commercial property in desirable locations pushed receipts to £20m at CBRE’s autumn auction.
The 17 October sale at the Millennium hotel on Grosvenor Square, W1, saw overseas and UK bidders compete against telephone buyers to push success rates to almost 70%.
Six properties sold for more than £1m and several for more than £750,000.
Yields ranged between 4.9% for a Starbucks in Earls Court Road in London, to 23% for the Queensgate shopping centre in Grays, Essex, which was being sold on behalf of receivers.
The largest lot of the catalogue, a Heathrow office let to Philips Electronics, sold for more than three times its £1.2m guide. Furious bidding pushed the final selling price to almost £3.8m, reflecting a capital value of £200 per sq ft.
John Townsend, CBRE’s lead auctioneer, said: “This is one of the largest commercial investments to sell at auction this year. It demonstrates how equity-rich buyers are willing to invest large sums of personal wealth into larger lots if they are correctly priced and in the right location.
“High yielding asset management opportunities as well as stock let on long leases with at least 10 years unexpired let to good covenants are in demand. However we are also seeing a notable rise in appetite for sensibly priced vacant stock in desirable locations and also for smaller lot sizes in the provinces, which local buyers with regional market knowledge can easily manage.”
samantha.mcclary@estatesgazette.com
