Clean sweep for heb

Nottingham-based chartered surveyors, heb, has confirmed a clean sweep at its latest auction selling all of its lots.

While the summer can be considered a quiet time for the property market, this is the second sale heb has held in August and both times high success rates have been achieved with a number of bidders choosing to leave proxy bids with the auctioneer or to arrange telephone bids.

Auctioneer and heb partner, Matt Hilton, said: “Despite the general perception that the summer is a quiet period in terms of property transactions, this is the second auction we have held in August, and both have been extremely successful.

“We do offer the facility for potential buyers to leave proxy bids or make arrangements for telephone bids to be taken, this ensures that nobody will miss out.

“We saw a very busy auction room with good interest being shown in both the commercial and residential properties offered and I was delighted with the 100% record achieved.”

The successful August auction was held at the Nottingham Gateway Hotel.    Initially all but one of the lots were sold in the auction room, but following swift negotiations a deal was agreed to sell the remaining lot following the auction.

The most interesting lot offered for sale was approximately 12 acres of land in Downham Market, Norfolk which has a listed guide price of £75,000 – £100,000, and eventually sold in the room at £130,000.  The land came with a number of problems, including the illegal occupation of part of the site.

Another lot sold on behalf of receivers was a modern two storey office in Long Eaton, which has been completed in 2008 but never occupied.  The property offered 2,000 sq ft of accommodation over two floors and was listed with a guide price of £60,000 – £70,000, and eventually sold in the room for £82,000.

Also of particular interest was 25b Cistern Gate, Louth, a property sold jointly with the Nottingham Property Services which had been identified as being particularly suitable for sale by auction.  The property has been lived in by the same person for almost 50 years and little work had been carried out at the property during this time.

An offer had been received prior to the auction of £76,000, but in view of the demand shown prior to the sale the property was taken into the auction room and sold at an eventual price of £88,000, interestingly to the same person who had bid £76,000 prior to the auction.  This is an excellent example of how an auction can be used to achieve the best price.

Other lots of note were a terraced house sold as a residential investment on Grimston Road which was achieving £550 per calendar month, the property was guided at £60,000 – £65,000 and eventually sold at £71,500 showing a yield of approximately 9%.

Matt Hilton added: “We had seen good viewing numbers prior to the auction and what is becoming more apparent is that people viewing have more knowledge about the market and are prepared to enter into the auction environment and bid.

“This is having a positive effect on auction results in terms of both the price achieved and the number of lots that are being sold both regionally and nationally.”

Following the latest auction the total amount raised so far in 2012 by heb now stands at over £5million.

heb’s next auction will be held on the 17 October 2012 at the Nottingham Gateway Hotel and entries are now invited.