The home of a former regional daily newspaper has sold at auction for £400,000 just over a year after its parent company went into administration.

The old Union Street headquarters of the Oldham Chronicle, which was home to the newspaper before it closed down on 31 August 2017, went under the hammer on Tuesday.

A total of 49 staff lost their jobs after the Chronicle’s parent company, Hirst, Kidd and Rennie Ltd, went into administration, although the title has since been revived as an online operation by new owner Credible Media.

The defunct company’s administrators, KPMG, have now sold the four-storey building to a mystery buyer which the auctioneers described only as a “regional property company.”

Last year the building was put on the market by estate agent Lambert Smith Harrington, under the instructions of KPMG, for £250,000, but it has now ended up selling for more than 1.5 times that amount.

The sale of the 1960s Union Street building, which includes offices and a room once used to house the printing presses, took place at the University of Bolton Stadium, home of Bolton Wanderers Football Club.

Stuart Cooper, director at Auction House North West, which conducted the sale, declined to name the property company which had made the winning bid when approached by HTFP.

But he said: “There was a lot of interest and there were probably four or five bidders in the room for it. We had about 20 viewings, so it was quite a popular one.”