Auction news - distressed sellers

Landlords looking for residential investment bargains will be hartened by the news coming out of the auction rooms.

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Last week two of the largest auction houses Allsop and Savills reported strong sales results in their residential auctions of selling 75% and 68% of the lots respectively. This compares with success rates reported by other auction houses of less than 50%. The fact that residential investors and landlords are only buying when they can see a bargain was reinforced by the results unveiled this week in Property Week which showed that Harman Healy's residential auction only achieved a success rate of 38%.

It was revealing in that around 60% of the Allsop sale was for so called distressed sellers such as mortgage lenders and receivers. This seems to demonstrate that residential investors are still keen to snap up a bargain but only at genuine bargain prices. It appears that Allsop's may not have been as successful at persuading their sellers to set realistic reserves within what after all is a falling residential market.

Yields for investors are starting to look attractive with those shown in the Allsop sale averaging 7.96% for assured shorthold tenancies and 6.07% for assured tenancies.

Allsop's next residential sale is in September and will include a large disposal of houses for investment and occupation on behalf of Network Rail.

Landlords to get up to date information on auctions and find details of auction properties near you go here