Reservoir plot makes £48,000 at auction
A former reservoir in Shropshire has been sold for more than double its asking price after an online bidding war.
The site of the old Posenhall Reservoir, near Broseley, sold for £48,000 at an online auction.
There were 27 bidders for the former reservoir, which has now been filled in.
It had been given a guide price of around £20,000 when it was put up for sale by Lambert Smith Hampton, who expect to see the site used for a self-built house.
The vacant 0.37 acre (0.15 hectare) plot is one of five that were sold in the record-breaking auction on behalf of Shropshire water supplier Severn Trent and Capita, along with three in Derbyshire and one near Worcester.
One of the Derbyshire plots attracted a top bid of more than £200,000 – the most Severn Trent had previously raised through an auction of a former reservoir was £90,000 – which the sellers said reflected the move to online bidding in auctions.
Oliver Childs, head of auctions for Lambert Smith Hampton, said: "As online auction technology has improved, LSH decided the time was right to launch an online platform.
"This opens up the market to a much wider range of bidders, particularly individuals and local developers, who perhaps wouldn't have been able to travel to an auction room or may have felt intimidated bidding in the traditional manner.
"LSH worked with Capita and Severn Trent Water as we have a long history of successful sales with them and we knew they would be realistic in their reserve prices and trust that our new method of sale would work.
"We concentrated hard in maximising the exposure of the sale, both nationally and locally, and this has been key to the high number of bidders and the sale success that we achieved."
In its guidance for the Posenhall site, Lambert Smith Hampton pointed to Government support for self-build properties, and national planning guidelines now taking account of a growing appetite for Grand Designs-style building projects, following the success of the Channel 4 programme.
One-off, bespoke properties are increasingly gaining planning consent, the company says, even in areas often constrained by planning policy – recognising that custom builds can be an affordable way into home ownership.
