Acuitus raised £19.05m at its May commercial property auction, with retail and office lots proving popular.
There was “strong demand” for a 10,000 sq ft office building on the Randalls Way Business Park in Leatherhold, which sold for £1.74m.
Charlie Powter of Acuitus said: “We have read a lot recently about the lack of interest in offices. This is not the case in the private investor market where there is demand for well-appointed modern accommodation with good transport links. In this particular case there was also demand from residential developers who were considering the property’s potential for conversion through permitted development rights.”
The Anchorage gastro pub and six-bedroom hotel on Haven Road near Poole (pictured), which is currently let to Greene King on a new 20-year lease at a rent of £120,000 per annum, sold for £2.2m at a yield of 5.13%.
Jon Skerry of Acuitus said: “The quality of this asset and its close proximity to Sandbanks ensured strong investor demand and The Anchorage did not disappoint with concerted bidding from several parties.”
Acuitus said that in recent weeks it had seen “more positive investor sentiment towards in-town shopping centres”, with the 70,469 sq ft Castle Place Shopping Centre in Trowbridge attracting more than 100 expressions of interest before selling prior to auction for around three times its guide price of £400,000.
Richard Auterac, chairman of Acuitus, said: “As this sale showed, buyers are more confident in the long-term prospects for assets across all the property sectors believing a pricing inflection point has been reached. Notwithstanding the latest Bank of England interest rate rise, this positive belief led to the strongest buyer interest across the board since last autumn.
“Part of the success was attributable to the quality of assets at this auction where prices have remained firm and transactions occur smoothly and quickly. This is giving rise to more sellers bringing the higher quality assets to auction in order to capitalise on serious investor demand which remains unabated.”
