More than 200 telephone bidders took part in Savills’ latest live-streamed auction, helping to push the total to £40m.
The number of phone bidders was double the number calling into the Savills team during the previous month’s sale.
Chris Coleman-Smith, head of Savills auctions, said the demand for phone bidding highlighted “the desire from bidders for the closest they can get to that auction room buzz in current times”.
However, he said any decision on whether Savills would be returning to the room once Covid restrictions are lifted would not be taken until later in the year and would have to be cost-effective. “Hotel prices went up and up in the five years before the pandemic. If we have to spend the same amount [on room hire] as before, it becomes prohibitive,” he added.
Savills sold 99 lots from 124 offered in the 14 April auction – a success rate of 80%. Some 15 lots were withdrawn. The total was almost double Savills’ pre-pandemic April total in 2019, when it raised just over £20m in the room.
Four lots sold for more than £1m, including three mixed-use lots with future development potential.
In Battersea, SW11, a lettings agent with five tenanted flats above (lot 46) was offered on behalf of fixed charge receivers and sold for £1.5m, ahead of a £1m guide. The sale price reflected a gross yield of 6.24%.
Another fixed charge receivership sale, this time in Brixton, SW2, achieved a sale price of £1.3m, against a £1.1m guide. The tyre centre with three flats above (lot 42, pictured) produces £85,900 pa – a gross yield of 6.56%.
In Worcester Park, Surrey, a shop let to a house clearance company with two flats above (lot 49) sold at around its guide, achieving £1.05m. The sale price reflects a gross yield of 4.74%.
The fourth property to sell for in excess of £1m in the April sale was a house in Southfields, SW18 (lot 2), offered on behalf of Wandsworth council. It sold for £1.3m against a guide of £925,000.
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