Bond Wolfe’s £21m auction helps cash-strapped council

Bond Wolfe’s first auction of 2025 saw strong results, with 89% of the 160 lots sold, raising a total of over £21m.

Birmingham City Council sold five properties for £807,000 as part of its ongoing efforts to sell off assets from its £2.4bn investment property portfolio through a programme led by commissioners.

Before the fire sale of assets, the council held the largest land estate of any UK local authority, extending to 26,000 acres. It attracted on average £34m of revenue per year from more than 6,500 property assets and over 300 of these have historic interest.

Gurpreet Bassi, chief executive of Bond Wolfe said: “This was an excellent result to start another promising year for Bond Wolfe’s auctions. We are very pleased to have once again achieved good results for our auction clients, underlining the fact that the demand for solid assets such as bricks, mortar and land remains strong.”

The former Merrishaw children’s home in Northfield sold for £351,000, more than its guide price of £200,000, marking a successful sale for Birmingham City Council.

Bond Wolfe’s final auction of 2024 saw Birmingham City Council secure more than £1.1m in sales.

Bassi continued: “These results see us on track to continue our growth and reach in 2025 and we look forward to expanding our client base as more sellers and institutions and local authorities increasingly appreciate the opportunity that our regular auctions provide to achieve significant results in a relatively short timescale.”