Private property investors clearly have ‘deep pockets’

The final results are in and after taking post-auction sales into consideration, the result from Allsop’s final commercial sale of 2016 topped off a record year for the company, taking the total raised in 2016 to £605m.

Allsop’s auction in December raised more than £117.6m across two sessions, a year-on-year increase of almost 100% on the £59.8m sold at the commercial auction held in December 2015.

The result takes the total realised by Allsop’s commercial auction department in 2016 to a record of £605m, against a 10-year average of £450m.

With a total of 170 commercial lots sold, it was the largest December catalogue offered by the auction house for a decade.

The average lot size was £691,000, compared to the average lot size of £620,000 to date in 2016. A total of 39 lots sold for more than £1m either prior to or at the auction, representing 23% of the catalogue, against the 2016 average of 16%.

Industrial investments made up 13% of the catalogue, compared to an average of 7% in the year to date, and the sector saw strong demand, with 82% of lots in this sector selling.

Yields for well-let, grade A retail investments moved in to 6% from an annual average of 6.3% and mid-range, grade B retail remained unchanged at 8.2%. Overall retail yields, including multi-let buildings and parades, moved out slightly to 7.9% from 7.6%.

Duncan Moir, partner and auctioneer, commented: “It was a buoyant room, with strong competition in a good number of sectors. The private investor clearly has deep pockets. There remains some price sensitivity in secondary areas, but the sale levels for better locations are very well supported.”

Allsop’s latest commercial property auction took place this week at the Park Lane Hotel in prime central London.

In total, 118 of the 147 lots on offer were sold under the hammer on Tuesday - 81% sales success - raising just over £56.5m.

You can view the catalogue of Allsop commercial results here.