Minshull Street block sold for nearly three times guide price at auction

Pugh said its February sales, across Manchester and Leeds, generated the firm’s largest sales total in more than a decade, raising £21m from 187 lots.

The sales saw 80% of the total lots on offer disposed, a mix of commercial and residential property and developable land.

The grade two-listed four-storey office block at 12 Minshull Street in Manchester city centre was guided at £1.25m and sold on behalf of the Ministry of Justice for more than £3m. The property is fully occupied by offender support organisation Cheshire & Greater Manchester Community Rehabilitation Company at £95,000-a-year.

Established 25 years ago, Newton-le-Willows-based Pugh was acquired by property consultant Eddisons last year and now has a team of 36 staff. The firm sold £100m of property at auction in 2016.

Paul Thompson, managing director, said: “The February auction continued the really positive momentum we have seen over the last two years, with a strong appetite from buyers to invest in property. We achieved our best results in over a decade and the bidding was intense, fuelled by the diversity and quality of the properties and land on offer.”

He added: “We are also seeing an ever-increasing demand from our investors from outside the North who are getting excellent returns for their money compared to other, more expensive, areas of the country. There is also a growing trend for more first time buyers to venture into the auction room, which can be a speedier, and sometimes less expensive, route onto the property ladder than a more conventional property purchase via an estate agent.”

Thompson went on: “Our recent auction was the largest since 2006, despite concerns over the impact of the recent changes to stamp duty and the uncertainty around Brexit. I’m confident that with low interest rates and strong investment returns on property we will continue to grow in 2017 as a national auction business.”