How will marketing large portfolios of smaller properties evolve? Unsurprisingly, the Internet is tipped to play a major role.
Vendors have already started to use the Net to buy such portfolios. Somerfield recently became the first property owner to sell a £305 million portfolio of stores over the Net. Warburg Dillon Read ran an online tender process with Somerfield's solicitors, Dickson Minto, to market details of 140 Somerfield stores to 30 bidders.
The secure Website allowed vetted prospective buyers access to legal documentation about each of the stores and resulted in the sale of 45 stores to CWS.
And GVA Grimley is to use a Website to market redundant Halifax outlets. The site will offer prospective buyers the opportunity to access details on 210 properties, including their GOAD plans and specifications.
A dedicated phoneline is being set up to connect potential buyers directly to agents acting for Halifax.
Some of the 210 properties are already on the market, but the majority are the result of the recent rationalisation of the group's portfolio following last year's acquisition of Leeds Building Society.
