A three bedroom end of terrace house in Hillingdon near Uxbridge which needs total renovation has sold through Auction House London for an unexpected 56% above its guide price, at £390,000.

The house, which had an original guide price of £250,000, drew large crowds of buyers to the auction on Wednesday 30 July 2014, no doubt drawn by the potential to extend and increase its value for a new owner. The property in Victoria Avenue stands on the largest plot in the road and already has planning permission in place for a two storey extension at the side.

Auction House London, Managing Director, Andrew Binstock, said “This house represents something of a blank canvas and attracted buyers from across the spectrum. In general, a bit of heat has gone out of the housing market recently - but the right properties which are well-priced will sell well, also giving room for the buyer to realise the potential. Once the work has been carried out on this house, it could re-sell for up to £500,000.

52 lots sold out of 60 offered – a success rate of 87% - at the well-attended sale at the Everyman Cinema in Belsize Park, raising a total of £12,501,650.

In Abercorn Place, St John’s Wood, north London, bidding on a ground floor studio flat in a modern block started at £180,000 before selling at £238,000. At the other end of the scale in Stamford Hill, Stoke Newington a large commercial property comprising of a ground floor shop with offices above and planning permission to extend the building to create flats, sold for £1.85m, having started with a guide price of £1.5m.

Andrew Binstock continued, “The market has clearly stabilised - yet there is still a very high demand for homes, and part of our job is to price property at a level which will bring people to the party.”

A great deal of excitement was also generated at the auction by a three bedroom family home in Bexley Heath, Kent, being sold for the first time in 80 years by an elderly couple downsizing.

Andrew Binstock explained, “This house has never been exposed to the market before and the owners decided to try selling at auction first, ahead of using a traditional estate agent, which paid dividends. The house had a guide price of £200,000 and sold for £280,000. I doubt that any agent would have risked advertising this house at its selling price. But the power of auction and the competition in the salesroom meant that it found its true market level.”