Clive Emson - General Sale - Hampshire

Date: 25 Apr 2008

Land and property auctioneers Clive Emson raised £14.5m in the second round of regional auctions it has held this year.

The star lot at the Rose Bowl auction in Southampton, covering Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, was an 11-and-a-half-acre oil well site at Crawley Down, near Winchester, pictured, which went for £395,000 against the low-end guide price of £350,000.

Two other auctions were held at Brighton (Sussex and Surrey) and Maidstone (Kent and South-East London).

As well as the oil well, another two lots near Southampton sold well. The remnants of The Frobisher Industrial Estate, a former carpet factory at Budds Lane in Romsey, went for £18,000 against a pre-auction guide of £10,000-£20,000.

Two garages within a block of five to the rear of Longmead Avenue in Bishopstoke sold for £8,000 against a guide price of £5,000.

James Emson, a director at Clive Emson, said: "We are very pleased with the results. We are not convinced that we are in a recession, as suggested by many doom and gloom merchants, but rather in a period of some price re-adjustment. The recent and further drop in the interest base rate will only add to buyer confidence."

Oil well site at Crawley Down, near Winchester