A shop on Blackwood High Street has sold at auction for more than £32,000 – despite measuring just 11.5 square metres.

The unit, which is just one metre and 37 centimetres (4.5ft) wide, and 8.5 metres (28ft) deep, is squeezed between a shoe shop and an opticians.

Listed with a guide price of £27,000, the auction attracted five bidders and 16 bids. The store, on 165 High Street, was eventually sold for £32,250.

Debra Bisley, of Newport-based Paul Fosh Auctions, said: “We believe that this is surely the smallest shop for sale in south Wales.

“Although it’s small it’s in an ideal spot for the right business.”

She added: “The shuttered shop has previously traded as a vape shop, a sweets stall and as a sandwich bar. The possibilities for the space may not be endless but with some imagination it could become perhaps a takeaway coffee shop, card shop, small boutique or perhaps a mobile phone repair outlet or bijou beauty salon or nail bar.

“The shop, sandwiched between ShoeZone and Specsavers and with a range of independent and national traders nearby, has a kitchenette at the back so there’s a start for the entrepreneurial cafe owner at least.”

“Ideally located on the thriving High Street of Blackwood, this property benefits from plenty of footfall.”

Due to the shop’s low rateable value, it is exempt from business rates.