The 43,468 sq ft United House in York which has permitted development rights for residential conversion sold for £6.02m.

Of the five lots which sold for more than £2m, four were office properties and the sector accounted for more than half of the money invested at the sale.

Acuitus auctioneer, Richard Auterac, commented: “There is now serious interest in the regional office sector and it is the subject of concerted buying. “This is being fuelled partly by the scope for residential development, but experienced investors are also seeing that they can buy income-producing properties at good entry yields and also have the prospect of further upside through asset management”.

Elsewhere in the sale, an Odeon cinema investment in Banbury Cross sold for £2.2m at a yield of 5.5% while a prime shop in Romsey let to Superdrug sold for £1.35m at a yield of 5.1%.

Richard Auterac comments: “ Several of the assets in the sale were complex and required considerable hands-on involvement by us working with our prospective investor and developer buyers  in the days leading up to the auction. This led to our selling clients achieving some good results, and demonstrated our ability to buy and sell complex and high quality multi-million pound assets.

“There is an exceptional level of demand in the auction room at present and that will offer sellers great opportunities at our next auction in October.”