The UK’s top two residential auction houses reported strong interest in regional lots at their July sales.
Properties outside London sold well at Allsop’s £52m July auction, where 74% of lots sold, while Savills raised £30.5m in its July auction with a success rate of 79.5%.
Chris Coleman Smith, Savills’ head of auctions, said that there had been some “trepidation” among investors before this month’s auction, but added that the total represented “a storming result”.
“It shows other auctioneers that there is a market there,” he said.
Three buildings in Suffolk, including an old pump house and water treatment works, were sold by Savills on behalf of Anglian Water for prices well above their guides.
It was a strong improvement on the previous month’s sale, when Savills sold 71% of its catalogue and raised £14m less than it had raised in May from the same number of lots.
That result prompted the firm to become more selective about which stock it offered. This time, it raised a similar amount to its June sale but from 46 fewer lots offered.
Coleman Smith said Savills could have listed another 50 lots, but chose to limit the total offered to 118.
“There is still value around London, but I’m not surprised people are looking regionally,” Coleman Smith said.
Allsop partner and auctioneer Richard Adamson said: “There is a real appetite for some of the regional investments.”
He said that of 18 properties in Liverpool offered in the Allsop auction, only two went unsold, and 10 out of 11 lots in Northern Ireland were purchased. Lots in Manchester and Birmingham also sold well, he said. “There is some real capital growth there [in the regions], and good yields,” Adamson said.
In the North West, residential sales rose by 4% from £65m to £68m in the second quarter, according to Essential Information Group.
SDL Auctions North West held its first auction in Manchester on 19 July, raising £1.1m from 25 lots.
SDL Auctions’ chief executive Rory Daly said: “This was a most encouraging start for us in the city and such is the interest already in our October auction that we are confident of doubling the number of lots on offer.
“There is clearly a growing appetite for auction sales in the North West.”
London and Home Counties post 12.6% sales fall for second quarter
The total raised from London residential properties at auction fell by 12.6% in the second quarter this year compared with the same period in 2016, according to Essential Information Group.
The total number of London lots offered fell by 11.8% and the number sold dropped by 17.2%.
Meanwhile, the amount raised from residential lots sold in the East and West Midlands and East Anglia rose by between 17% and 25%. However, the South West reported a fall of 16.7% from £72m to £60m.
The Home Counties experienced a fall of 5% to 10% in totals raised in the second quarter compared with the same period last year.
Residential auction results
| Item | June 2017 | April 2017 to June 2017 | July 2016 to June 2017 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lots offered | 2,317 (2,282) | ↑1.5% | ↓6,806 (6,858) | 0.8% | 27,775 (28,096) | ↓1.1% |
| Lots sold | 1,684 (1,694) | ↓0.6% | ↑5,172 (5,129) | 0.8% | 21,011 (21,584) | ↓2.7% |
| Success rate | 72.7% (74.2%) | ↓2% | ↑76% (74.8%) | 1.6% | 75.6% (76.8%) | ↓1.6% |
| Total raised | £234m (£243m) | ↓3.8% | ↓£779m (£786m) | 0.9% | £3,176m (£3,368m) | ↓5.7% |
Resi total raised April-June 2017 (April-June 2016)
| Region | Total raised |
|---|---|
| East Anglia | £27m (£23m) ↑17.8% |
| East Midlands | £53m (£43m) ↑25.3% |
| London | £173m (£198m) ↓12.6% |
| North East | £40m (£45m) ↓10.6% |
| North West | £68m (£65m) ↑4% |
| NW Home Counties | £51m (£57m) ↓9.9% |
| Northern Ireland | £20m (£6m) ↑246.2% |
| Scotland | £5m (£5m) ↓1.6% |
| SE Home Counties | £128m (£135m) ↓5.5% |
| South West | £60m (£72m) ↓16.7% |
| Wales | £29m (£27m) ↑6.8% |
| West Midlands | £74m (£63m) ↑18.3% |
| Yorks & Humber | £51m (£47m) ↑6.9% |
