By Nikki De Guzman:
UK
property firm Allsop sold 79 percent or £53 million (S$99.8 million)
worth of commercial properties at an auctions event in London yesterday.
According
to the consultancy, the strong turnout reflected ongoing appetite for
correctly priced stock with 75 percent of all lots sold above the
reserve price. Overseas buyers made their presence felt and bid
competitively for the right stock.
An Australian buyer who
flew in from Melbourne successfully bid for Lot 90, a Cancer Research
space in Liverpool City Centre that was sold for £555,000 (S$1.045
million). The buyer plans to donate the property to cancer research.
17
of the 97 lots sold at the auction held at Park Lane Hotel were going
for over £1 million (S$1.88 million), including this year’s most
expensive lot, an 11-storey office block at Clarence House in Newport,
Wales which was sold for £3.95m (S$7.44m), contributing 18.4 percent of
the total amount raised.
Notably, the UK’s first McDonald’s restaurant – Lot 81 in Woolwich – was auctioned off to a Far Eastern investor.
“There
is clear demand for property assets and the cash investor is looking
further afield as well as showing signs of being willing to take a
higher risk. The auction room is established as the easiest point of
access for both buyers and sellers however correct pricing remains
crucial,” said Duncan Moir, Auctioneer and Partner at Allsop.
Nikki De Guzman, Junior Reporter at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact her about this or other stories email nikki@propertyguru.com.sg
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