SUTTON Kersh has raised £2.4m from its first Liverpool property auction of 2011.

The firm sold 35 of the 60 properties on offer at the event at the city centre Marriott Hotel last week.

Kersh reports that pre-auction activity was high, with 14 properties selling prior to the event.

The remaining lots were offered to an auction room that attracted almost 200 people. More sales in the pipeline may boost the headline figure.

The “stand-out” lots of the day were two vacant residential properties. One, at Craven Road, near West Derby Village, is a three-storey semidetached property that has been converted into four self-contained flats.

Guided at £100,000, the property, which was offered with vacant possession, attracted numerous underbidders and eventually sold in the room for £143,000.

Another vacant residential property, located at the junction of Greenheys Road and Sefton Park, in the Princes Park area of the city, also sold for more than £50,000 above guide price.

In need of full refurbishment, the three-storey dwelling has been converted into seven self-contained flats and is described as being suitable as an investment property or for conversion in to a single dwelling, subject the necessary planning consents being obtained. It was guided at £140,000 and sold for £197,000.

A former bank building fronting Holland Place, close to its junction with Wavertree Road, near the Liverpool University Hospital, was guided at £75,000 and sold for £96,500.

Cathy Holt, auction manager at Sutton Kersh, said: “It was a very busy room and competition among bidders was high.

“There were a number of first-time investors in the room looking for good deals that would generate better returns than the banks. The result and the atmosphere in the room are a good indication that things are picking up.”