Strong JLL gives boost to property

Auctions are typically seen as a bellweather for the market in general, and the result shows that investors are still willing to pay keen prices where financing is available.

The UK’s second largest auctions firm sold 92% of the lots on offer, compared to 73% at the equivalent sale last year. The catalogue was small, with just 49 lots offered, with auctioneers unwilling to take on property that vendors are unwilling to offer at a realistic price.

Solid yields

Consequently the total raised, £27m, was significantly down on last year’s figure of £78m. The flip side of this was that low yields were achieved, with the average yield on Barclay’s Bank sale and leaseback lots, the blue chip Benchmark of JLL sales, of 4.63%, lower than at the December sale.

JLL auctioneer Richard Auterac said: ‘The result shows there’s not any real evidence of distress in the market. If you look at the lots that are selling since this time last year yields have moved up on the average property, but only by around 50 or 60 basis points.’

Auterac added that the lots that were selling best were priced below 31m, the average for JLL sales, where finance was more easily available for investors.