Allsop racked up sales of £52.6m at its March commercial auction, with retail assets accounting for more than £44m of activity.
The largest lot sold was a neighbourhood parade in Orpington comprising 35 shops and four maisonettes, which went for more than £4m (7.4%).
Six neighbourhood parades were sold on behalf of the London Borough of Bromley for a total of £9.5m, four shops let to tenants including Bank of Scotland, TRAID and Clarks, sold for more than £6.7m and 27 betting shops let to William Hill sold for a total of circa £4.6m.
The auction’s success rate was 75%, 10% down on the average success rate of 85% since the start of the year.
George Walker, partner and auctioneer at Allsop, said: “The last two weeks have thrown yet more hurdles in the way of financial markets, and whilst some investors hesitated, many carried on building their portfolios for the long-term, making their cash work for them through well-secured real estate. With the bank rate having risen to 4.25%, one would hardly expect the market to pay that for a let investment, but this is the yield we achieved for the Boots in Streatham, sold at £2.75m, to a buyer who was keen on the long-term residential upside offered by this asset.”
Allsop’s next commercial auction will take place online on 17 May.
