A substantial house in multiple occupation (HMO) in West Sussex has been sold for just over £1m by Clive Emson Auctioneers.
The property in Bognor Regis, with 19 letting rooms and two studio flats, generates nearly £127,000 per annum in rent, equivalent to an inflation-beating yield of 12.1% before annual costs (lot 156).
A record number of lots for the year – 163 – were listed across southern England in the firm’s September online auction, with more than £20m raised for clients.
Seven terraced Victorian houses in Portsmouth, which were converted into retail stores by a family-run furnishers starting out as a workshop in 1926, the year the late Queen was born, fetched £801,000 (lot 104).
Victorian houses in Portsmouth
Chalked as having “re-development potential”, a former 13,550 sq ft community centre in Devonport, Devon, called Welcome Hall and owned by Plymouth City Council, attracted 146 bids and sold for £246,672, which was £186,672 more than the guide price (lot 131).
Welcome Hall
For Downton Abbey fans, there was an opportunity to purchase 1.4 acres of land 3.5 miles from Highclere Castle, where the hit TV series was filmed. With 34 bids, the overgrown site, adjacent Pembroke House, Earlstone Common, Burghclere, near Newbury in Berkshire, fetched £151,000, which was £81,000 more than the guide price (lot 73).
A former Methodist church in the fishing habour village of Newlyn, Penzance, Cornwall, sold for £142,000, with 93 bids, against a guide price of £20,000 (lot 119).
Set in 1.3 acres, a detached four-bedroom house in Mersham, near Ashford, Kent, and requiring “total refurbishment”, was acquired for £703,000 following 129 bids and a guide price of £450,000 (lot 132).
James Emson, Managing Director, said: “There was no shortage of investment buyers, who look way beyond the current economic headwinds, with various lots sparking bidding wars. We look forward to providing a similarly diverse range of properties and land in our November auction, the seventh of eight this year.”
Producing nearly £21,000 pa, 17 garages in South Croydon went for £215,250 (lot 88) and nine vacant garages in West Byfleet, Surrey, for £136,000 (lot 157).
On the market for the first time in 58 years, just under 4.5 acres of land at a farm in Staplefield, Haywards Heath, West Sussex; fetched £80,000 (lot 101).
Clive Emson Auctioneers’ next auction ends on 2 November, with bidding opening 48 hours beforehand. Lot entries close on 10 October, with the catalogue available from 14 October.
