The West Midlands residential auctions market has got off to a spectacular autumn start. Earlier this month, Birmingham auctioneering firm Bigwood raised almost £1.25m with the sale of 90% of the 48 residential lots offered at the city’s Grand Hotel.
“Not only is £1.25m a vast sum by Birmingham standards,” claims the firm’s Grant Dixon, “but the result is also indicative of greater confidence in the property market as a whole since interest rate reductions.”
On a more personal level, Bigwood auctioneer Arnold Shepherd counts the result as the finest achievement of his 30 years as an auctioneer.
Top lot of the day was a pair of freehold houses at 469-471 Gillott Road, Edgbaston in Birmingham. Offered freehold with vacant possession, the two five-bedroom properties were sold for £198,000.
The speed of the auctions process was convincingly demonstrated by the sale of the Old School House and Chance House on Sandwell Business Park, Sandwell in the West Midlands. Offered as one lot on a 125-year lease, the vacant properties sold for £90,000, having been viewed for the first time less than 24 hours before the auction.
