Delighted Buyers at the New Forest Auction

Fierce bidding at the Woolley & Wallis property auction saw the price of a New Forest cottage soar to £550,000 as two interested parties battled it out.

Finally Gerard Downes bid of £550,000 - £100,000 above the guide price - was enough to secure Oakdene, Furze Lane, Beaulieu. He said afterwards: “It was my absolute limit I was not prepared to go any higher.” A couple of times Mr Downes  shook his head when our auctioneer Ben Marshall asked him if he was prepared to better the price of a woman bidder who was also determined to buy the three bedroom detached cottage with 0.39 acres of land and direct forest access.

He could not bear to see the house slip away and his final offer was enough to secure the deal. Mr Downes is a seasoned house buyer at auction as he bought his current home near Brockenhurst at last year’s Woolley & Wallis sale.

On Thursday (June 28) there was standing room only in the auction room at the Balmer Lawn Hotel, Brockenhurst. Graeme Dacombe and his partner Brenda Sleap (shown in the photograph) came determined to buy 4.5 acres of woodland close to their home near Fovant. They eventually paid £50,000 for a part of Whitmarsh Wood, Sutton Row after steady bidding saw the price creep up from the guide of £30,000.

A delighted Mr Dacombe said: “My partner and I have walked through these woods almost every day for the past 12 years and so when we knew part of it was up for sale we really wanted to buy the land. We see it as a wonderful thing to have but also as an investment. It means a lot to us.”

A parcel of 0.28 acres of land at The Willows, Hordle, near Lymington, which has Caravan Club Certification, sold for £5,000 more than its guide price of £40,000. Two other cottages at Hordle and Brockenhurst did not sell on the day but there was a lot of interest after the auction and partner Mr Marshall was confident a deal would be struck in coming weeks.