Media mogul Felix Dennis is to auction off five Warwickshire properties for a combined guide price of £3.2m, in a bid to boost his vast tree-planting project.
The auction will take place on 24 October at Ingon Manor Golf and Country Club, Warwickshire, with Smiths Gore handling the sale.
The publisher, who owns international lifestyle title The Week, has spent 10 years investing in the Heart of England charity – a project to plant the world’s largest privately created forest.
Money raised from the five lots – auctioned on behalf of Dennis and his property company Silva Developments – will be reinvested into the Heart of England Forest, and could see 250,000 saplings planted.
The two most expensive lots are Grace’s House on Welford Road and Blenheim Hall in Pebworth, both with guide prices of £900,000.
Grace’s House is a newly-built country home covering 2.81 acres, while Blenheim Hall is a 26-acre site with consent to build a contemporary house.
Smith Gore director Robert Pritchard said the properties were quite different from one another, with each appealing to different markets. He added that Blenheim was likely to attract a “self-made entrepreneur”, while Grace’s House would suit a family requiring work access to the Midlands.
Lot 1, a Dutch barn at Crabtree Farm, is a live-work unit that Pritchard said would suit a rural “grand design” project. Lot 2 at Jacksons Barn is expected to appeal to investors and owner occupiers, while the 20-acre Lot 3 at Badbury Hill Barn has an occupational condition requiring any buyer to have an equestrian interest.
chris.berkin@estatesgazette.com
