ANOTHER slice of Southampton's High Street is up for sale after the building that houses the Ferryman and Firkin pub was put up for auction for £1.1m.

It's just the latest of the city's prestige city centre sites to be sold as "unprecedented demand" for commercial property pushes prices to new heights.

The nearby Lloyds Bank building was sold for £2.21m late last year and a building housing a photographic studio in Above Bar Street fetched £1.07m not long afterwards.

Next door to the Ferryman and Firkin, the Dolphin Hotel, one of Southampton's most historic buildings, is on the market for £5m.

The Grade II listed home of the Ferryman and Firkin, which is run by pub giant Spirit Inns and remains unaffected by the sale, generates more than £60,000 a year in rent and is likely to be popular with bidders thanks to its reliable tenant.

It's being sold off by an unnamed private investor who is thought to have owned it for around four years.

Auctioneer George Walker, who will handle the sale for property auctioneers Allsop, said there had already been "strong interest".

"We are looking for quite a dear price for it," he said. "So far we have had a pretty good response. One thing affecting the market is the interest rate going up, but nevertheless it's a nice looking building and the tenant is a strong company that can pay the rent and they are seen as quite secure."

Any local buyers will be competing with interest from across the country when it comes up at the London auction house on July 10, he said.

"A buyer is likely to come from London or across the south east because it's such a strong tenant it doesn't take local knowledge. However there will also be people from Hampshire in the sale room, no question."