Eager bidders push prices at Clive Emson

Interest in South Coast auction lots is picking up, with Clive Emson receiving more than 2,100 requests for legal packs for its latest sales. The four events – held in Brighton, Maidstone, Saltash and Southampton between 18 and 22 March – featured a total of 151 lots. Three-quarters of the properties on offer sold, raising £12.5m. Further disposals are expected post-sale. Auctioneer Kevin Gilbert said that the four venues were “packed with prospective buyers, all eager to bid”, which led to strong prices being achieved. He cited a freehold ground rent on a semi-detached home in London, N2, with a 99-year lease from 1932, which sold for £203,000 off a guide of £60,000-£65,000. Investors were also out in force for a block of eight two-bedroom flats in Rochester, Kent. Guided at £680,000- £690,000, they sold for £840,000 – a 7% yield. A freehold block of four flats in Hastings, East Sussex, offered on behalf of receivers, sold at £360,000 against a guide of £210,000-£225,000. And the half-acre Binnewith Island, within the city walls of Canterbury and surrounded on three sides by the River Stour (9 March, p63), sold for almost three times its guide of £50,000-£60,000, with the hammer finally falling at £145,000. samantha.mcclary@estatesgazette.com