A COTTAGE in a mews where racing driver the late James Hunt lived in the 1980s is among the lots in Robertson Smith & Kempson's property auction later this month.

The end terrace house on a gated development in West Kensington half a mile from the Queens Club has a guide price of £490,000.

It is one of 40 properties due to go under the hammer in the sale room at Ealing's Ramada Jarvis Hotel on November 29.

Another on the list is the old Blue Anchor pub in Steyne Road, Acton. It has a 47ft function room and eight bedrooms on the upper two floors. Auctioneer Phillip Arnold believes the potential for alternative use could push the sale price up to a million.

Former pubs are much to the fore in the auction.

A semi derelict hostelry in Wembley High Road with planning consent to be turned into a 15 room hotel, restaurant and pub is expected to fetch £2 million.

There's also a two bedroom top floor flat in a former pub in Coningsby Road that's been converted into four flats. The guide price for a new 99 year lease on the available flat is £180,000.

The catalogue includes freehold properties let to shorthold tenants and a number of residential and retail investment opportunities including the freehold of the Chicken and Ribs restaurant and takeaway in Rosemont Road, Alperton, which has a guide price of £700,000.

Buyers looking for projects won't be disappointed. There are plenty of houses needing money spent on them and several development sites with and without planning consent including a former nursery garden in Uxbridge Road, West Ealing which is expected to make around £540,000.

One of the most attractive propositions in the auction is an advertising hoarding on a wall in Broadway Parade on the Pinner Road close to North Harrow station. The space was previously let for a ten year term for £2,000 a year. The short term lease has now run out and the auctioneer's guide price for the vacant site for the next 980 years is £5,000. "We're expecting strong interest from local companies," says Phillip Arnold.