Motor Trader The award-winning and longest running UK magazine for car retailing professionals. Your first stop for News, Jobs and Reports for the motor industry.
Property acquisitions are starting to pick up in the dealer sector after the rapid decline seen in 2008, according to a number of specialist property services companies.
“Heads are now appearing over the parapet,” said Bill Bexson, managing director of Automotive Property Consultancy.
He said the dealership property market has strengthened over the past year.
especially with new dealer developments driven by growth at Audi, Ford and BMW and the newly launched Infiniti brand.
However, he added that many closed sites are unlikely to reopen as dealerships.
“Many of the closed dealerships were operationally redundant and shut down for good reason. In normal market conditions these are the type of properties that would be taken up by alternative uses. Today this recycling demand is more limited, depressing values of vacant properties by up to 40 per cent on the mid 2007 high water mark, he said.
Tom Poynton at GVA Grimley has also seen a slow recovery in demand for property.
“We have witnessed several strategic acquisitions of development sites in recent months, and are confidentially aware of a number of others that are under contemplation,” he said.
He warned, however, that the opportunity to buy properties or development sites at depressed prices is limited as a gradual improvement in prices is now expected.
David Chittenden, head of automotive and roadside at Colliers International, also believes the market is showing some signs of recovery, particularly for quality property.
“An increased demand for prime roadside locations has fuelled the appetite for automotive property with a number of deals in 2010 achieving higher levels than when the market was considered to be at its peak in 2007,” he said.