A record of a modest north Norfolk flat listed as having sold for more than £30m threw up an intriguing mystery.

The property website zoopla.co.uk and a number of others listed Flat 18 at Homecolne House, Cromer, as having fetched £30,011,000 in May last year.

The amount would have been an extraordinarily high price to pay for a one-bedroom flat in a retirement complex in a postcode where the average asking price is a fraction of that amount.

Homecolne House's manager, who did not wish to be identified, was at a loss when asked about the sale price.

She said Flat 18 was where she lived - the manager's flat - but that other flats there had different owners.

Eastern Daily Press: The listing on zoopla.co.uk, showing the value for Flat 18, Homecolne House in Louden Road, Cromer, as £30,011,000. The listing states it was last sold in May 2018. Image: ZOOPLAThe listing on zoopla.co.uk, showing the value for Flat 18, Homecolne House in Louden Road, Cromer, as £30,011,000. The listing states it was last sold in May 2018. Image: ZOOPLA (Image: Archant)

Land Registry data shows single flats in 17 other developments across the country were sold for an identical amount, and are listed with the same ID code.

Curiously, all of these flats had names similar to Homecolne House, for example, Home Park House in Bedford, Homebridge House in Torquay and Homeheights in Southsea.

But a spokeswoman from property management company Firstport was able to shed light on the mystery.

She said the company had owned the flat, but sold it, along with 276 other manager's flats at retirement home across the country, to a single buyer for £30m last May.

She said: 'We hate to disappoint residents of Cromer that this property may not quite be worth £30m, but this is an error on Zoopla. This is due to the incorrect recording of 277 individual flat sales as one single sale. It would be in everyone's interest if Zoopla and the Land Registry make the necessary correction.'

And a spokesman from the Land Registry said that was simply the way the information had been recorded due to the nature of the sale.

He said: 'It was part of what have been called a TR5 portfolio of titles, which is when a portfolio of titles has been transferred for a single sum. That's how it gets registered.'

The Land Registry spokesman said their information would be updated in March to clarify the sale. Firstport said they were contacting Zoopla, so they could also update their listing.

Homecolne House, in Louden Road, was built by property developer McCarthy and Stone and opened in 1987.