An office block owned by Croydon Council is on sale for more than £10million.

The authority bought Davis House back in 2008 for a huge £19million.

The sale of the building 15 years on from its purchase comes as the council battles a financial crisis.

It issued its third bankruptcy notice in two years in November 2022 and hopes to make minimum of £50m this financial year.

At the time, the Conservative administration, described the £19 million purchase as a “good investment”.

The office block is home to the South London Coroners Court which is on the second floor of the building.

Cabinet member for finance, Jason Cummings, was not a councillor at the time but said the investment was “reasonable”.

He said: “Broadly speaking it is though tot have been a reasonable and justifiable price, I don’t think there was any controversy about it.

“The £10 million is a guide price and we would absolutely hope to get more than that. 

"This is the council working through what it has to do because of the bankruptcy, it is basically a position we’ve been forced into.”

The brochure for the property from estate agents SHW says the seven storey building, with four shop spaces fronting the High Street, has a “passing rent” of £486,915.

The sale was one of 27 approved by Croydon Mayor Jason Perry at a meeting of the council’s cabinet on May 24.

The meeting heard it was the first tranche of three lists of “disposals” in Croydon.

At the meeting, “We know that the disposal of assets is key to the reduction of the long term debt that we hold as a council.

"Balancing the books is a top priority and selling assets which the council does not need to deliver services helps us to ensure that we will reduce our debts and demonstrate to the government that we are serious about fixing this council’s finances.”