Five surplus reservoir sites were sold through an online auction last week for well above their reserves.
Lambert Smith Hampton raised almost £300,000 in the sale for client Severn Trent Water.
The highest price achieved was £74,000 for a site in Melbourne, near Derby, which was marketed with a reserve not to exceed £35,000. Three bidders battled it out for the lots.
Two sites sold for £67,000 against reserves of £20,000, an increase of 235%. They were in Stone, Staffordshire, which attracted 56 bids from 10 bidders, and in Oakham, Rutland, which saw three bidders place 51 bids.
A one-acre site at Earl Sterndale in the Peak District fetched £62,000 against a reserve of £50,000 and the final site in Belper, Derbyshire, sold for £25,000 against a reserve of £15,000.
LSH head of auctions Oliver Childs said last month that the firm had revised its pricing expectations upwards following the strong performance of similar lots in two previous online sales for Severn Trent Water. It also introduced “reserve not to exceed” prices in place of guide prices to provide greater clarity to potential buyers who were new to auctions.
LSH has also just sold a site for the Homes & Communities Agency online. The lot, comprising highways and land near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, sold at its £1,000 reserve. This was the HCA’s first online auction.
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