A FORMER care home sold for more than three times its guide price when it went under the hammer at auction.

Combe House, on Walney's Central Drive, was one of seven care homes run by Cumbria County Council which shut following a consultation in 2016.

Its residents were moved to Park View Gardens.

The site has been on the market since and went on sale with a guide price of £90,000 in an online auction hosted by Landwood Property Auctions.

Seven bidders battled it out to buy the buildings and it eventually sold for £406,000.

James Ashworth, director of Landwood Group said: “Whilst we expected the property to generate a lot of interest, given its potential and good demand at present in both the care and residential development care sector, the sale price came as a pleasant surprise.

“Our marketing generated interest both locally and on a national basis.

"It shows the benefit to the council of using our auctions as a sale method, with the potential for a number of very keen parties to get into competition and push the price up.

“It will be interesting to see what the buyer eventually does with the site and we are delighted to have secured a valuable capital receipt for the county council and to hopefully help bring the property and/or the site back into use in due course.”

Councillor for Walney North Des Barlow said: “It’s been on sale for a while now and it has provided accommodation for a long time.

“If it’s gone now for so much money it must be for a special reason. It’s very interesting that it went for so much.

“We’d be interested to see what the future holds for it.

Councillor Anita Husband said: “I knew it was on sale for a long time but I had no idea it would go for so much. It’s actually a beautiful area so I can understand it being worth a lot of money.”