Clive Emson dies at 79 after 20 years on Homes Under the Hammer

Clive Emson died peacefully on Wednesday at the age of 79, with his family by his side. clive emson had spent more than 20 years making regular appearances on Homes Under the Hammer, turning a regional auction career into a familiar television presence.

Homes Under the Hammer

His long run on the show made him one of the best-known auctioneers in British property television, but the work behind it was rooted in a far larger business. Emson was at the helm of Clive Emson Land and Property Auctioneers, which stretched from Kent to Cornwall and included the Isle of Wight, with six-weekly land and property sales that moved online after the pandemic.

That mix of television visibility and auction-room credibility set him apart from the usual daytime property figure. He was not just a screen regular; he was running a business with a wide southern footprint while also serving as a public face for the market.

From £1.50 to the auction room

His career began in 1968 at Geering and Colyer in Maidstone, after leaving the King's School, Rochester, at 16 with a couple of O-levels and moving on to Maidstone Technical College to study commerce, book-keeping and economics. He later said, “It was more laid back, and I enjoyed talking and meeting people.”

Emson launched his first estate agency, Clive Emson and Co, in Hythe in 1973, merged the business with Ward and Partners in 1983, and resigned as regional director three years later after Prudential took over the firm nationally in 1986. He also described his own early start in property as earning just £1.50 a week as a junior estate agent, a reminder of how far the business carried him.

Family and Kent

He met his wife Sue at a Tonbridge branch, and they were married for 50 years before she died six years ago. Emson also had two children, James, 52, and Rebecca, 55, and received an MBE for services to vulnerable and disadvantaged young people in Kent.

The company later outgrew its auction venue at the Great Danes Hotel in Maidstone and relocated to the Kent County Showground at Detling, where the Clive Emson Conference Centre became one of the halls used for the six-weekly sales. His death closes the book on a career that linked local property, television, and charity work without ever losing its Kent base.