The claim of a near £800,000 profit on the sale of a central Douglas site has been called into question.

In the House of Keys sitting Lib Vannin leader Kate Beecroft (Douglas South) quizzed Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer on the sale of the site.

It was sold to Middlemarch Develoment Ltd, a subsidiary of Auldyn Properties Ltd, a shareholder in the Sefton Group.

Mrs Beecroft asked how much of the proceeds of the sale were in respect of inflation and whether a current valuation was carried out before the sale of the site.

Mr Harmer said the site was sold for a profit of £766,528, but a valuation was not carried out. The site was sold for £3,966,540.

He said: ’This was because the method of calculation of the selling price was defined in the options agreement. This itself was based on the valuation undertaken at the time of purchase.’

Mrs Beecroft fired back that while the government claims a profit was made, the only increase in the value of the property was due to inflation and was not a real-terms cash sum. The agreement on the price the site, in the event of the sale to the Sefton Group, was confirmed in the House of Keys sitting on May 7, 2013.

Then Economic Development Minister John Shimmin said that the government’s ’purchase price of £3.2 million, plus inflation’ would ensure that the taxpayer was protected from any fall in the value of the site.

The month before Mr Shimmin’s statement, the government had bailed out the Sefton Group, part of which saw the government buy the Middlemarch site for £3.2m, including a buy back option for the Sefton Group.

However, Mrs Beecroft made the point that without knowing the current value of the site, it is impossible to ascertain if the taxpayer has lost out on gaining more money from the sale of the site.

Despite this, Mr Harmer said the sale and potential development of the site was a ’good news story’.