A SHOP in York’s premier shopping street sold at auction today for £465,000.

Bids for the Grade II listed building at 34, Coney Street, started at £350,000 in the live-streamed online auction organised by London auctioneers Acuitus, and quickly rose past the guide price of £400,000.

A ‘Mr P’, bidding on the Internet, was eventually outbid by an unknown buyer on the telephone.

Acuitus had said that the shop, which has lain empty for some time, presented opportunities for conversion of the upper storeys to residential use, subject to planning consent.

Bids for a former perfume shop next door at 32 rose to £446,000 - just below the guide price of £450,000 -£475,000 - and failed to sell

The properties are amongst about a dozen shops in Coney Street which have been lying empty in recent times.

Andrew Hedley, of York firm Blacks Property Consultants, said an opportunity to actually buy any property in the city centre - which were usually just available to rent - was very good news for a retailer, a smaller buy to let investor or someone looking to convert extensive upper storeys which a ground floor retailer might not need these days.

“The auction gives everyone a chance to buy, not just big funds,” he said. “Lockdowns have certainly not deterred buyers, who often cannot understand why so few opportunities to buy, often less than a handful each year, arise.

“The timing suggests that perhaps, like ourselves, auctioneers knowing York see it as a good time and now with residential in the city centre being an exciting option identified in recent times.”