More than £18m has been raised for clients in the early spring auction by Clive Emson Auctioneers.

Listed were 145 lots across southern England in the firm’s second of eight auctions this year.

James Emson, Managing Director, said: “More than £18m of property and land were sold, with house buyers in particular keen to get in before stamp duty is paid on properties over £125,000 in April, compared to the current threshold of £250,000.”

A bidding war saw a countryside cottage at Lovedean, north-east of Portsmouth, and chalked for modernisation, fetch £295,000, nearly double its guide price following 141 bids (lot 71).

Just off the Brighton Road (A23), a detached three-bedroom house at 7 The Vale, Coulsdon, Surrey, sold for £443,000, with 98 bids, and exceeding the guide price by £93,000 (lot 20).

Meanwhile a hobbit-like converted former pumping station in Penzance, Cornwall, with a kitchenette, pull-down bed, shower and WC, went for £25,000 (lot 1). 

Bought for £701,000, a former 26-bedroom care home set in 3.5 acres of landscaped gardens and woodland on the outskirts of Bideford, North Devon (lot 70). Pictured.

Trustees instructed the sale of Oddfellows Hall in Canterbury city centre, Kent. The property, partially let at £15,000 pa, went for £450,000 (lot 41).

Previously used as a HMO, a vacant property with eight bedrooms in Romford, Essex, soared with 69 bids from £525,000 to £679,000, an increase of £154,000 (lot 113).

With four bedrooms, a detached bungalow, in the village of Outwell between the towns of Wisbech and March in the Cambridgeshire Fens, sold for £231,000 (lot 107).

Brighton & Hove City Council instructed the disposal of 12 garages and five parking spaces in Brighton’s city centre, East Sussex. Currently let at £15,799 pa, they had a guide price of £290,000 - £300,000 and sold afterwards. (lot 26).

In the same city, with the same council, nine car parking spaces, currently let at £8,640 pa, went for £145,000 (lot 79).

The auction attracted website visitors from 127 countries.

Clive Emson Auctioneers’ next auction concludes on 1 May, with bidding live from 48 hours beforehand.

Lot entries close on 7 April, with the catalogue online from 10 April.