Sold for £550,000, the garage in south London which went for TRIPLE the asking price after bidding frenzy

• Brick-built former coach house sold for almost triple the guide price
• Sold for £150,000 more than the average house in Camberwell

 
A ramshackle garage next to a south London industrial estate has become the most expensive ever to sell in Britain after going under the hammer for £550,000 in a 'frenzied' bidding war.

The brick-built former coach house, used for years to park the Mayor of Southwark’s car, sold at auction for almost triple the guide price and £150,000 more than the average house in Camberwell.
The price paid for the 'empty shell' of a building by an anonymous buyer beat the previous record, held by a garage near Harrods in Knightsbridge, west London, by £25,000.

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A ramshackle garage next to a south London industrial estate has become the most expensive ever to sell in Britain after going under the hammer for £550,000 in a 'frenzied' bidding war

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The brick-built former coach house, used for years to park the Mayor of Southwark's car, sold at auction for almost triple the guide price

The coach house is next to Vanguard Court, a thriving hub of 40 small workshops and studios off Peckham Road, whose tenants have included ceramicist Edmund de Waal and Turner Prize short-listed sculptor Cathy de Monchaux.

 The 568sq ft double height brick building, which has vaulted ceilings, a roller steel door and a cobbled drive, was given an estimate of £200,000 by auctioneers Andrew Scott Robertson.

Associate director and auctioneer Jeremy Lamb, who supervised the sale, said he was 'surprised' the building, which was previously owned by Southwark Council, had fetched so much.
He said: 'It’s an empty shell of a building.

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The coach house is next to Vanguard Court, a thriving hub of 40 small workshops and studios off Peckham Road, whose tenants have included ceramicist Edmund de Waal and Turner Prize short-listed sculptor Cathy de Monchaux

     

 

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The 568sq ft double height brick building, which has vaulted ceilings, a roller steel door and a cobbled drive, was given an estimate of £200,000 by auctioneers Andrew Scott Robertson

'It’s in a reasonable state, but there are quite a few cracks in the walls.
'We had about six or seven bidders at the auction - a mixture of residential developers, investors, potential occupiers and artists. However, the number of bidders quickly dropped as the price went up.'
Mr Lamb put down the high price to London’s housing crisis - with demand for properties far outstripping supply.
He said: 'Free-hold properties of this type are very scarce, and there is a high demand for properties like this in the area.

 

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The marker 'A' shows where the garage is situated in south London's Camberwell

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A view from the road which shows the entrance to the garage in south London

 

'A terraced house here sells for between £500,000 and £600,000 and the coach house, subject to planning permission, would make a good home.'
He added any buyer wishing to turn it into a house, could expect to invest £100,000 in it.
More than 200 artists and small business owners working in the court signed a petition opposing Southwark Council’s sale of the building on the grounds any new owners would object to the noise created by the 'busy and thriving' light industrial estate.
The buyer is anonymous but there have been rumours it has been bought by one of the artists in order to save the studios.

The coach house sold for £150,000 more than the average house in Camberwell, pictured (file photo)

Mr Lamb added: 'The coach house would make an ideal artist’s studio and I’ve heard rumours it has been bought by a wealthy artist to save it from being turned into housing, though I haven’t a clue if that is true.'
Cllr Richard Livingstone, Southwark’s Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, added: 'Like most councils, Southwark has experienced big cuts to our budgets in recent years, and we need to ensure we are making the most of all viable opportunities available to us to generate income.
'We are therefore delighted to have sold this garage for such a good price, having already made savings from no longer running the Mayoral car it housed.
'The proceeds will help the council to invest in our capital programme which pays for improvements to libraries, parks and facilities for older people, for example, allowing us to continue delivering excellent services for all our residents.'

OTHER LONDON GARAGES SOLD FOR A SMALL FORTUNE

The Camberwell garage is not the only London lock-ups with a hefty asking price.
Many tiny spaces in the capital have sold for a small fortune with buyers keen to take advantage of their investment potential.

 

In 2010 a dilapidated row of storage units in Primrose Hill went on the market with a whopping £1.25million asking price. But the new owner could rest assured that they would own property in the same trendy area as Kate Moss.

In 2012 a 6-metre long garage went on the market for £525,000, but that was because of its pricey postcode in Knightsbridge - home to Harrods and some of the world's richest people.

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In October 2013 a double garage sold in Highgate sold for a cool £251,000. For the money the new owner can enjoy mains electricity in each of the two garages, and there is an option of connecting to water on-site.

And in August 2013 a 224sqft Highgate lock-up, which had been converted into a studio flat went on the market for £250,000.

Source:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2602592/Sold-550-000-garage-south-London-went-TRIPLE-asking-price-bidding-frenzy.html