Price-sensitive buyers shied away from stock at CBRE’s sale yesterday where less than half of the stock sold.
Just 42% of the 43-lot catalogue sold at the Millennium Hotel sale.
Some £9m was raised, reflecting the lowest revenues for the agent since it entered the auctions market last year.
Seventeen out of 43 industrial, retail and office lots offered sold, including four prior to the event.
Auctioneer John Townsend said: “It was a difficult day. People are chasing the market and they are making an offer when they see what the bottom is. It is the three-bites-of-the-cherry approach: before, during and after the auction.”
There was strong demand for realistically priced receivership lots with six out seven, changing hands and raising £5.4m. This included a leisure investment in Hertford guided at £1m, which sold for £1.3m, a 10.6% yield, and retail investment in Saffron Walden, Essex, guided at £380,000 to £390,000, which sold for £504,000 – a 5.8% yield.
Other successes included the first lot of the day, a Costa coffee shop in Newport, Shropshire, which sold for £301,000, a 6.3% yield, and a freehold ground rent in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, which sold for almost £1.2m, a 4.7% yield.
