The city council is preparing to enter unknown territory by auctioning off an abandoned nursery left empty for decades.
“I’m afraid I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Aberdeen’s property chief Stephen Booth told councillors as they agreed to try their luck auctioning two long-empty properties.
The fear is that the local authority could lose hundreds of thousands of pounds against in-house valuations.
But it is hoped the auctioneer’s hammer will bring relief for the city council, which has failed to sell unused premises for years.
Aberdeen City Council turns to auction to get rid of problem sites
Councillors have approved a pilot programme in the hope of being rid of some of their more difficult-to-shift assets.
They will first look to dispose of the former St Peter’s Nursery on the Spital and a three-storey house, formerly a care home, in the west end as they test the waters.
By getting rid of them, the city will no longer be responsible for maintenance, inspections, security, utilities and rates.
Sales have previously been “protracted over a long period (sometimes years)” while legal missives are agreed.
If dependent on planning wrangles, deals have even fallen through when proposals were denied.
St Peter’s Nursery has been closed for more than 20 years. The local authority has tried to offload it on a number of occasions.
Japanese knotweed hindered the sales process in 2010. The building “in a poor state of repair” has been under offer twice, but is still on the council’s books.
More recently, the overgrown site has been listed on the council’s website for two years for offers over £250,000.
Since being listed again in 2021, no offers have been made.
How will the council property auction work?
Reserve prices are expected to range between 60% and 80% of the value assigned to the buildings on the council’s books.
If at the lower end of that scale, the local authority could take a £250,000 hit against the full valuation of the two properties.
The council’s chief landlord Booth was asked if he could predict how the pilot would go, “without a crystal ball”.
“I am afraid I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he admitted.
“It’s certainly a method being used more and more on the market by agents, not just in Aberdeen but across the country.
“It gives certainty, not over price, but over when liabilities can be transferred and when income will be received.”
West end fixer upper to go under the hammer too
All council properties are valued annually by chartered surveyors.
That will be the starting point for the asking price as the buildings go under the hammer.
But Mr Booth said his trained staff would make the most of the auctioneers’ experience to work out what the reserve should be.
The Hollies, the seven-bedroom house in King’s Gate which is also to be auctioned, is still on the market for £375,000.
City property bosses have emphasised its development potential for flats.
However the former care home requires “extensive” work to make it habitable.
But having been on the market for a year, no offers have been made.
Conversation