A fast and furious bidding war broke out at a Cumbrian auction – resulting in a piece of South Cumbrian land being sold for double its guide price.
At the H&H Land & Estates auction in Kendal, The Old Cricket Field at Barbon, near Carnforth, sold for more than twice the £50,000-£60,000 guide range.
The Old Cricket Field was the subject of a bidding battle so fiercely contested the hammer finally fell at £122,000, more than double the £60,000 upper guide price, and at 1.93 acres slightly more than that figure per acre.
A range of meadow and grazing land, including a stable block at Simgill Farm, Grayrigg, extending to around 7.85 hectares, was sold in four lots for a total of £278,000, over £30,000 more than the upper guide range, at an average of £14,337 per acre.
Later in the auction, fishing rights extending to around 1.37km of single east bank fishing on the River Lune at Fairmile made £25,000, and a pair of garages in the centre of Barbon village continued the competitive trend with a bid of £41,000, more than four times greater the higher end of the guide price.
H&H Land & Estates director, Mark Barrow, said: “Land is a finite resource and invariably when a sought after block comes to the market sold prices may exceed the guide.
“The price achieved for the Old Cricket Field at Barbon showed just how far interested parties were prepared to go.
“Selling by auction is not a route that everybody feels comfortable with, but it’s a traditional way of selling in this area, and the spectacular results at Kendal confirm that it can be a highly successful way to achieve outstanding values.
“We are delighted that the auction achieved such fantastic results for our sellers, and it was clearly a successful day for the bidders who were prepared to pay those prices to secure their purchases.”
