TS Eliot may well have written that the world ends not with a bang but with a whimper, but the opposite was true at a special auction of several flats within the mansion block in which the author lived.
Savills banged the gavel down to raise more than £5m at its dedicated auction for three lots at Kensington Court Gardens, W8, which included the former home of the poet.
The reversionary ground rent investment for the north block at Kensington Court Gardens, which comprises 20 flats with two regulated tenancies and eight leases with unexpired terms of between 57 and 89 years and produces an annual income of £25,791, sold for just over £1.3m. It was guided at £1.1m.
One of the 20 flats within the block was home to Eliot from 1957 until his death in 1965. The block includes a blue plaque, unveiled by former poet laureate Ted Hughes in 1992. Eliot penned the play The Elder Statesman in 1958 while living at Kensington Court Gardens.
Lot 2, a 2,642 sq ft raised ground floor flat in need of modernisation, sold for £1.97m. It was offered with potential vacant possession in 11 years when the occupational lease expires. The final lot, a 2,266 sq ft flat on the third floor of the seven-floor mansion block, sold for £1.77m. It was also offered with potential vacant possession when the lease expires in 12 years. Both flats sold for in excess of their guide prices.
The sale took place at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square, W1, on 11 December. Savills’ next auction takes place on 19 February.
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