A former RBS bank on the high street in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, drew strong interest at the latest SDL Auctions Bigwood sale.
The property sold for £232,000 from a guide price of £155,000, helping the firm to a total of £13.5m and a 77% success rate from the sale on 24 October.
Other sales included a pump house for the former Goodyear factory and three garages in Wolverhampton, which were offered with a nil reserve and sold for £51,000.
Two former neighbourhood offices offered on behalf of Birmingham City Council in Aston and Bartley Green both sold for their guide prices of £400,000.
Also sold for the council was a plot of land of 970 sq yards fronting Lea Hall Road in Lea Hall, which went for £174,000 from a guide of £50,000-plus.
A mixed-use investment on Hawthorn Road in Birmingham, which has a current gross rental income of £31,680 a year and solar panels producing circa £5,400 a year, sold for £268,000.
Empty shops with development potential proved popular: a prominent freehold two-storey shop in Smethwick sold for £230,000 against a guide of £210,000-plus; and in Rugby, a vacant shop with two upper floors on one of the town’s two main shopping streets sold for £175,000 from a guide price in excess of £150,000.
Andrew Parker, managing director and auctioneer at SDL Auctions Bigwood, said: “Interest in commercial property remains strong right across the West Midlands region and there is clearly demand from investors for good stock.”
Buy-to-let stock sold well: a two-bedroom, mid-terraced property in need of modernisation in Coventry, for example, had a guide price of £25,000-plus and sold for £84,000.
“For investors, this is an asset class which continues to grow in popularity despite the removal of tax reliefs, incentives and the burden of ever-increasing regulations,” Parker said.
“Landlords are proving they are adaptable and that they make their investments in property for the long run, not short-term gain.”
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