A total of 17 out of 25 offerings in Auckland on Wednesday, March 11 sold at a total value of just over $27 million with four out of five properties also selling under the hammer in Wellington the next day.

“We went into the auction with a certain amount of trepidation given the turmoil in equity and bond markets,” said Bayleys’ Auckland commercial director Lloyd Budd. “But we ended up with a great result for our vendors which once again reinforced the attraction for investors of bricks and mortar as a defensive asset class in turbulent times.“

'We had one of our biggest crowds in recent years for the Auckland auction, with bidding on all but two of the Auckland offerings and a sizeable number of observers who came along to check out what the market was doing.”

Budd said six of 11 fully leased tenanted properties sold at yields of less than five per cent. “This was a clear indication that the market had already factored in further interest rate drops which was confirmed by the Reserve Bank’s three quarters of a percentage point cut to the OCR (Official Cash Rate) on Monday.”

The lowest yield was 3.93 per cent for two adjoining industrial units at 36 Arrenway Drive in Albany (pictured). The units built in 2004 were sold by Laurie Burt and Matt Mimmack as one lot for $3.26 million at $4598 per sqm on their combined floor area of 709 sqm.

Burt said the offering was in a sought-after location adjacent to Interplex business park and was a standalone two-unit development with its own underlying land holding which increased its attractiveness to investors. One of the units also has a rent increase in May which will increase the net income return to 3.99 per cent.

Attracting the most bids at the auction was a small retail unit located at 254 Lincoln Rd, Henderson. The 96 sqm shop which has a three-year lease from February 2019 to a vaping retailer and comes with one allocated car park plus a share of common parking sold at well over its reserve for $522,000 at 4.98 per cent yield through Matt Lee and James Chan.

Part of a fully leased nine-unit retail complex with frontage onto Lincoln Rd, close to the corner with Universal Drive, the property was declared on the market at $400,000, meaning its reserve price had been met. Over 80 further bids then followed, many of them $1000 increases, which pushed the final price up a further $122,000.

Three units in a new commercial development at 509-517 Ellerslie Panmure Highway, Mt Wellington, marketed by Tony Chaudhary, Amy Weng and Janak Darji, also sold at yields of less than five per cent.

A 240sq m unit occupied by a Ray White real estate office on a 12-year lease and Physio Connect on an eight-year term sold for $2.675 million at a 4.7 per cent yield while a 251 sqm unit with an eight-year lease to a café sold for $2.66 million at a 4.95 per cent yield. A 253m² unit occupied by international fitness chain Orangetheory on a 10-year lease sold for $1.965 million at a 5.75% yield.

Chaudhary says the units are part of a recently completed development by Argyle Estates Ltd, anchored by a McDonalds drive-through restaurant, on a high-profile corner site at the intersection with Mt Wellington Highway.

Other fully leased investment properties to sell were:

• A 246 sqm single-level building housing a large laundromat on a 429 sqm site at 233 Taniwha St, Glen Innes, marketed by James Were and Phil Haydock, sold for $1.457 million at a 4.8 per cent yield. The site in the Tamaki regeneration programme area is zoned Town Centre with a 32.5m height overlay.

• A 178 sqm purpose-built childcare centre on a 716 sqm site at 21 Park Hill Rd, Birkenhead sold for $1.968 million at a 4.86 per cent yield by Jarrod Qin, Michael Nees and Nicolas Ching. Licensed for 35 children, it has a new 15-year lease.

• A recently completed 350 sqm two-level retail and office development, with six tenants, on a 1012 sqm site at 28 Belgium St Ostend, Waiheke Island sold for $2.6 million at a 5.12 per cent yield by Mana Tahapehi.

• A 244m² unit at 21 Corinthian Drive, Albany, in a corner position in the Orchard Park retail hub, marketed by Eddie Zhong and Steven Liu, sold for $1.92 million at a 5.8% yield. It is occupied by Black Rice restaurant on a new 10-year lease.

• A 90 sqm unit in the 39-unit Rosedale Retail Centre at 96 Rosedale Rd, Albany sold for $955,000 at a 5.76% yield by Steven Liu and Eddie Zhong. The unit’s tenant has been in occupation since the centre opened in 2014.

• A 470m² two-level food and entertainment unit at 16H Link Drive, Wairau Valley sold for $1.24 million at a 6.29% yield by Eddie Zhong, Millie Liang and Trevor Duffin. Occupied by the Gogo Music Café on a long-term lease, it comprises a restaurant and karaoke music rooms plus eight parking spaces.

The highest price achieved at the Auckland auction was $3.5 million for a 566 sqm recently refurbished two-level character building on 375 sqm of land zoned Metropolitan Centre at 22 McColl St, Newmarket which sold with vacant possession to an owner occupier.