Commercial Auction
What we have seen
The turn of a new year is a time to reflect on some of the highpoints of our market in 2025; using some illustrated examples to pick out where buyers fought to invest for the long term, security of income, and perhaps the added value that was on offer. We’ll then look ahead to how 2026 may evolve as rates continue their downward trajectory.
Private Investors in the Commercial Real Estate sector have navigated various external forces throughout the year and have been discerning when deciding where to invest their capital.
There was increased uncertainty from the very beginning as President Trump commenced his second term on January 20th. The global stock markets reversed significantly in the first quarter and the year was then bookended by another tax raiding budget from our Chancellor in November. However, strong second and third quarters, primarily driven by Tech and AI, helped deliver double digit returns over the last year.
Concerns over the longevity of these stock market gains and the potential of only modest future annual returns should allow the relatively high-yield and low-risk offered by real estate to shine through, and we believe that this will now come to the fore as interest rates continue to fall in the UK.
In our high yielding market, interest rates are a huge driver and they have finished the year 21% lower than they started, down from 4.75% to 3.75% as of the latest MPC meeting on 18th December, and the downward pressure remains.
These reducing rates provide a good incentive for buyers to invest in our market as their safe, cash-based returns continue to diminish. A high number of our buyers re-iterate their intentions to buy again throughout the year ahead.
Once again, the Commercial Auction Team held eight auctions throughout the year. The first five of these, from February to July, were held as online-only auctions and then from September onwards our remaining three sales were live-streamed. The September auction raised c.£67m and proved to be the largest dedicated Commercial live-streamed auction held in UK. This sale also saw Tom Hanson offer his first lots from the rostrum as auctioneer.
In 2025 our team successfully sold properties ranging in lot size from just over £5.85m down to £1. Pricing proved to be very asset specific across all sectors, with long income and index-linked reviews a driver of demand, along with the potential for rental growth and the ability to add value.
Whilst we look ahead to 2026 at the end of this report, let us look at some of the highlights of the year in addition to detail on who has been buying and selling with us.
