Investors showed a keen appetite at auction as the hammer came down on £11m worth of sales.
Clive Emson Land and Property Auctioneers recorded a 75% success rate in its May round of auctions held over five days from Cornwall to Essex. The total of £11m was raised from 122 lots.
Managing director James Emson said: “We again saw busy auction rooms and successful sales as we held our May auctions.
“Confidence is continuing to return to the market with demand growing across the board, particularly for investment properties offering significant potential for capital growth as well as strong rental yields.”
Highlights of the May auctions included a major property in Castle Street, Dover, comprising shops and residential accommodation producing a 10% return which went under the hammer at £246,000.
Also in Kent, a parcel of land in Herne Bay sold for £145,000 – almost ten times its guide price – and a former Methodist Chapel in Sittingbourne, fetched £80,000 above its leasehold guide of £210,000.
A residential and commercial investment in Grove Road, Eastbourne, sold for £255,000. It was sold to a private investor and returns a net yield of 10.8%
In Ticehurst, Sussex, two-storey Cooper Stores went for £80,000 freehold. Currently, let at £7,900 per annum it produces a net yield of 9.8% and was sold to a private investor.
In Hampshire, a two-storey detached building at Whitepit Lane, Newport, occupied by Mac’s Minimarket and let at £7,000 per annum, fetched £72,000, which was £12,000 above the guide price. It produces a net yield of 9.75% and was sold to a private investor.
At the West Country auction a former Second World War bomb shelter at Downderry, Torpoint, sold for £17,500.
The seller was a Cornish property company and the buyer was an architect from the Plymouth area who intends to speak to planners to gain a viable consent of some description.
Former public conveniences in Camborne town centre sold for £17,500.
They were placed at auction by Cornwall Council and bought by a small partnership of developers from Camborne, which intends to speak with local planners about possibilities for the site.
At the new Essex/North and East London auction, a former underground nuclear bunker and land at Chigwell fetched £20,000 freehold.
The fourth round of Clive Emson Auctioneers’ eight regional auctions in 2015 takes place in the week commencing Monday June 15. Entries close on Monday May 18.
