Empty garage auctioned for nearly R10m

A disused garage with cracks in the walls and debris on the floor has become the most expensive to sell in Britain after it was bought at auction for more than half a million pounds.

The former coach house, which used to house the mayor of Southwark's car, exceeded the average house price by more than £150000 to sell for £550000 (about R9578480).

The empty building in Camberwell, next to an industrial estate in south London, beat the previous record, set when a garage in the shadow of Harrods sold for £25000.

The garage, which has vaulted ceilings, a roller steel door and a cobbled drive, was given an estimate of £200000 by auctioneers Andrew Scott Robertson - but sold for almost triple that amount.

Jeremy Lamb, associate director and auctioneer, said: "It's an empty shell of a building. 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."

Lamb said he thought the result at auction was due to the high demand for properties in London and Camberwell, seen as an upcoming area, which is raising prices.

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

More than 200 artists and business owners signed a petition opposing Southwark Council's sale of the building on the grounds that new owners would object to the noise created by the "busy and thriving" industrial estate. The buyer is anonymous, but there have been rumours that it was bought by one of the artists to save the studios.

Lamb said: "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."

It would cost about £100000 for a buyer to convert the building, he said.