Bucks CC farm sells for almost £1m over guide

A former county council farm made almost £1m more than the guide price at auction this week as three bidders fought fiercely for it.

The hammer came down on Littleton Manor Farm at Waddesdon, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, on Monday (4 May) when the bidding reached £3.22m against a guide price of £2.3m.

Auctioneer Matthew Peters of Bruton Knowles described the sale as “phenomenal”. “It just proves that auction is the way to get the best price for local authority and executor sales, where you are duty bound to get the best price.”

Littleton Manor sold to a local agribusinessman. The former dairy farm has a four-bedroom traditional farmhouse needing refurbishment and featured recently on Farmers Weekly‘s Land and Farms page.

There is also a detached bungalow let on a Farm Business Tenancy to the former tenant. This is in good order but carries an Agricultural Occupancy Condition.

A large range of modern and traditional farm buildings offered potential to refurbish for dairy, livestock or arable use or for light industrial or warehousing subject to planning consent, said Mr Peters.

The sale price is all the more remarkable as the conditions include a development uplift clause applying for 80 years from the date of completion. This covers the whole of the farm and means that if planning permission is given for anything other than agricultural or equestrian use, half of any increase in value will have to be paid to the county council.

The house and buildings lie at the centre of the mainly level land, which has good field sizes and is in a ring fence with good road access.