Written by: Edward Feather on 26th October 2022
An abandoned church in Littleborough has sold for £147,00 above the guide price at our October auction.
St Hilda’s CE Mission in Littleborough, near Hollingworth Lake, went up for auction with a guide price of £25,000 but sold for £172,000. Which is an impressive £147,000 over the guide price.
With the sale happening so close to Halloween, is it possible that could have got buyers in the mood to purchase something spooky?
Pugh Auctions Spokesperson: “We pride ourselves on transparent pricing that purposefully sparks buyer interest. But usually when we set a property at a guide price of £25,000 we definitely don’t predict a final sale value of over £170,000.
“We had 20 bidders and 130 bids in total, which was well above our expectations. However, I think that if it wasn’t ‘spooky season’ we might not have seen such high interest.
“Given all the property’s news coverage leading up to the auction, it's very possible that first-time bidders with an interest in spooky stuff saw the abandoned church and liked the concept of owning their own ‘cabin in the woods’ so much that it bumped the price right up.
“Excitement runs very high on auction days, let alone when there are as many as 20 bidders competing. It makes sense that passionate paranormal fans could create a bidding frenzy big enough to result in this jaw-dropping sale price.”
If you are hoping to find your own abandoned church, keep your fingers crossed and your eyes on our available properties.
Written by: Edward Feather on 26th October 2022
Edward is an experienced property auctioneer with over 15 years' property auction experience and considerable knowledge of the North West property market.
Edward joined Pugh & Co in September 2018 from SDL Auctions in Chester. He was also a Director at the Cheshire and North Wales franchise of the Auction House business, based at estate agent Humphreys in Chester, before its acquisition by SDL in 2016.
