£1/4m sale of landmark pub drives strong first auction of year

A Grade II-listed pub dating from 1752 and gutted by the 2007 flood has sold at auction for £250,000 - two and a half times its guide price - in a strong first auction of the year for Mark Jenkinson and Son.

The historic Farfield Inn survived the Great Flood of 1854 but was gutted by the city’s flood more than a decade ago and has been disused ever since.

As a result the coaching inn premises on Neepsend Lane is a very poor state of repair with complete restoration required. But despite the guide price of £95,000the landmark building sold for £250,000 at the January auction which saw total sales of £2.21million.

Adrian Little, Head of the Auction Department, said: “Beginning the year selling 18 of the 19 lots at auction for £2.21m is a very strong start and this landmark pub going for two and half times its guide price had a lot to do with that.

“We already have interest in the single unsold lot and are hopeful of another 100% sale as we achieved in January last year.

“Other highlights from the auction included an outstanding five-bedroom detached house on Westbourne Road. Within walking distance of the Botanical Gardens, it attracted over 100 viewings in the run-up to the auction.

“It was listed at £450,000 but on the day sold for £700,000 proving the market is there for prime properties.”

Other residential properties going under the hammer at the auction, held at The Platinum Suite, Sheffield United Football Club, included a three-bedroom inner terrace in Tinsley with a guide price of £30,000–£35,000 which sold for £53,000.

A traditional bay windowed semi-detached house in a popular residential area of Meersbrook listed at £120,000 also went for £148,000.

In the same week as the strong auction, Mark Jenkinson and Son also recorded the second best auctioneer results in Yorkshire and the Humber for 2017, in a report published by Essential Information (EI) Group.

The research by EI Group, which analyses UK-wide auction data and is recognised as the industry standard, found Mark Jenkinson and Son sold 88.3% of lots between January and December last year – with sales of £27,108,250.

The next auction will take place on February 27 with lots including properties from three of the region’s local councils. The Mark Jenkinson and Son catalogue includes a police station, dentists, community centre, grazing land, offices, and unmodernised houses.