According to Nick Pretorius, Sales Director at The High Street Auction Company, which along with Ndali Michael James Auctioneers will conduct the Tiffindell sale: "Although absolute auctions are extremely rare in the local auction industry, the decision was taken to hold one for Tiffindell because an absolute auction is the ‘Ultimate True Auction’ and the absence of a reserve price will ensure that the highest bid will determine the true market related value of the property".

“Absolute auctions are uncommon because there is no price protection on the seller’s behalf. However, the Liquidators and we agreed that because everyone has to participate in an absolute auction, a simple case of the highest bidder wins will generate the best possible price in current market conditions,” he explains.

The resort is situated deep in the Southern Drakensburg on a farm near the picture postcard hamlet of Rhodes in the Eastern Cape, and it is cradled in the shadow of the majestic Ben McDhui Peak. The potential for further development of the property is both obvious and enormous, and so it would seem that the battlefor Tiffindell might be over, but the bidding war is about to begin.