Ray White Commercial Achieves 80% Auction Clearance

Ray White Commercial Achieves 80% Auction Clearance

The Ray White Commercial network’s auction campaigns achieved a clearance of almost 80 per cent during the first quarter of 2016, compared to 59 per cent in the corresponding period last year.

Ray White Commercial Head of Research, Vanessa Rader, said retail and office investments were most popular with 23 out of 29 commercial properties offered for sale at auction nationwide selling for a total of $32 million.

“Despite some shift in market sentiment this year, the auction clearance rate remained high at 79.31 per cent compared to 58.82 per cent in Q1 2015,” Ms Rader said in her Auction Insights January-March 2016 report.

“To date, all of the sales for 2016 were sold prior to auction or under the hammer, highlighting another strong year of investment demand fuelled by low interest rates.

“Retail and office investments remain the most highly sought after attracting the greatest numbers of registered bidders.”

Vanessa Rader said most auction activity was towards Queensland investments with strong demand for tenanted small retail and industrial holdings.

One of the auction highlights for the quarter was the $9 million sale of a retail investment at 2211–2215 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach, by Ray White Commercial Gold Coast’s Michael Willems.

The marketing campaign for the property attracted 186 enquiries and there were 29 registered bidders at the auction with the winning bid coming in at $9 million.

“The successful bidder was a local investor and the property was sold under the hammer for a yield of approximately 4.67 per cent,” Michael Willems said.

“The property comprised two buildings on a total land area of approximately 1,555 sqm and included 14 tenancies generating net rental income of approximately $420,686 per annum.”