£15m property auction ‘is Birmingham’s biggest ever’
LOTS with a total guide price of more than £15m are up for offer next week in what the organisers claim will be the biggest property auction ever held in Birmingham.
Houses, former council offices and care homes, empty pubs and plots of land are included in the 136-lot sale at Villa Park that auctioneers Bigwood says will easily be the biggest it has ever held.
Its previous record was £8.4m worth of sales at an auction last year, when guide prices totalled less than £10m. Bigwood said auction takings of £40m made 2010 a record year, and managing director Rory Daly said the business was still growing.
He said: “We are really pleased with the growth we are experiencing and the wider interest being shown by the business world in taking the auction route.
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“Auctions appeal to a wide cross section of people – sellers can be confident of a disposal if they pitch their property at the right price, investors look to sniff out ‘a bargain’, while first time buyers have a chance to get on the housing ladder, where otherwise they might miss out.”
Next week’s auction features 37 local authority lots from Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sandwell and Wyre Forest councils, including Grade II listed Hawthorn House in Handsworth Wood, Birmingham, with a guide price of £250,000.
A host of former care homes feature in the catalogue, due to changes in regulations and standards in the sector, and include The Willows in Hockley, Birmingham, a vacant freehold 22-bedroom former care home and day centre dating from the 1970s, with a guide price of £400,000.
Time has been called on four pubs which are up for offer – the Jolly Collier in Cannock, The Bear in Coventry and The Nags Head and the Royal Exchange both in Darlaston.
