A commercial lot has been sold by Clive Emson Auctioneers for £5.4 million, the highest price achieved for a property outside London.
The Kerneos site in London Road, Purfleet, Grays, Essex, is approximately two acres in size. A building in the area, Clinker Pad, is currently let at £40,000 per annum, on behalf of Thurrock Council (lot 22).
James Emson, managing director at Clive Emson, said: “We saw phenomenal bidding for the site, and by the time the last bid had been placed we had received a total of 113 bids from six different bidders.
“One of the big attractions is the access road which runs through the site, with the final bid of £5,402,000 made by a private property investment company.
“It is a new auction record that has been set with the highest price achieved for a property outside of London in an online auction.”
Currently let at £14,250 per annum, a commercial investment in Grays was purchased for £644,000; it was another property disposal by the local authority (lot 115).
Elsewhere, a derelict colliery building at Llwynypia Road, Tonypandy, Mid Glamorgan, Wales, sold prior to auction, having a £55,000-plus estimate (lot 28).
A character property in an “idyllic” location - April Cottage at Porthallow, Helston, on the southern coastline of Cornwall – went for £336,100, which was £196,100 above estimate (lot 5).
Land with “stunning views” over the Atlantic and Portreath village, on the northern Cornish coastline, fetched £56,000, which was £11,000 above the lower end of the guide price (lot 31).
Following a disposal instruction from trustees, a Methodist church at Woodacott, Holsworthy, east of Bude in Devon, sold for £100,750, which was £80,750 above estimate following 75 bids (lot 72).
Let at £100,488.78 per annum, a 34,444 sq ft building comprising offices, workshops and studio spaces at VIP House in St Leonards, East Sussex, was bought for £750,000 (lot 114).
Emson said: “Based on these figures, the gross rental yield for the property equates to a high-yielding 13.40%.”
A five-bedroom HMO on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, let at £25,956 per annum, sold for £189,000, giving a gross rental yield of 13.73% (lot 93).
With six letting rooms, an HMO in Brighton was acquired for £500,000, giving a gross rental yield of 8.11% (lot 95).
A bank in Warminster, Wiltshire, sold for £441,000. The Grade II-listed Victorian building is let to Lloyds Bank at £28,000 per annum (lot 17), equivalent to a gross yield of 6.35%.
Clive Emson Auctioneers, which covers southern England, from Essex to Cornwall, and Wales, had 132 lots listed for the March auction, with £26m sold at an average sales rate of just under 80%.
The firm’s third of eight auctions this year ends on 5 May, with lot entries closing on 11 April and the catalogue online from 15 April.
