Queen Victoria might have smiled as ‘her building’ helped raise £19.5m in Bond Wolfe’s auction

A classic Black Country building erected to commemorate Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee was bought for well over half a million pounds at our latest auction.

The £550,000 paid for the former Bilston School of Art at 38-40 Mount Pleasant in Bilston was just part of more than £19.5 million raised in sale prices at our livestreamed event on Thursday 26 October.

The building, which had a £495,000+ guide price* with planning consent to develop into residential apartments, was built in 1897 and served the region as a place of education for nearly a century.

Gurpreet Bassi, our Chief Executive, said: “I’d like to think that even Queen Victoria might have had a little smile that a building originally celebrating her 60^th year of reign more than 125 years ago is still going to be an integral part of the community.

“That healthy sale – along with a wide range of other high prices achieved at our auction – again underlines the ever-expanding value of property.”

Our auction on 26th October saw 133 lots sold from the 153 lots offered, an 87% success rate which Mr Bassi pointed out was well above the industry average.

He said: “The ongoing success of Bond Wolfe’s livestreamed auctions make the company stand out amongst the best across the UK, from the Midlands to the North East and North West, and from Wales to deep down in Devon.

“We are now one of the nation’s go-to auction houses where people know that what can sometimes be quite complex properties have an excellent chance of raising very pleasing sale prices.

“This is driven by our focused marketing operations which for every one of our auctions results in hundreds of thousands of website page views, tens of thousands of video tours watched and many thousands of legal documents downloaded.”

The October auction saw 449,419 website pages views, 101,414 video tours watched and 25,995 legal documents downloaded.

Other highlights from the auction included an historical Midlands pub dating back 300 years to the the reign of George I, the first monarch of the Hanoverian dynasty.

The Royal Oak, on Bromyard Downs near Norton in Herefordshire closed three years ago, but the prospects for the property, which included an additional cottage on its 2.7-acre plot, saw the hammer come down at £319,000, from a guide price of £275,000+.

Land plots also performed well in the auction, with a freehold site extending to approximately 1.04 acres at Pedmore Hall Lane, Pedmore, near Stourbridge, with a guide price of £10,000+ selling for £154,000.

Another nearby parcel of land that extended to approximately 9.91 acres at Pedmore Hall Lane with an £89,000+ guide price was sold for £174,000.

Family homes across the Midlands also sold well, with a three-bedroomed, semi-detached house at 7 Sedgehill Avenue in Harborne, Birmingham that had a £135,000+ guide price selling for £221,500.

Up in Staffordshire, a two-bedroomed, end-terraced house at 104 Hall Lane in Great Wyrley with a £91,000+ guide price was sold for £120,000 on behalf of South Staffordshire Council.

Over in Ludlow, a semi-detached property at 4 Sandpits Road that had most recently been used as a day centre for adults with learning disabilities and had a £120,000+ guide price was sold for £154,000 on behalf of Shropshire Council.

Down near Kidderminster, a two-bedroomed, semi-detached cottage known as 2 Stone Cottages in Rock with a £115,000+ guide price was sold prior to auction for £134,000.

Meanwhile, a six-bedroomed guest house called Arden House, at 74 Maple Leaf Drive in Marston Green, Solihull with a £435,000+ guide price was sold prior to auction for £485,000.

And a two-bedroomed, end-terraced house at 18 Coronation Road in the popular student residential area of Selly Oak in Birmingham with a guide price of £160,000+ was sold prior to auction for £280,000.

Our next livestreamed auction starts at 9am on Thursday 14 December.

Anyone with a property they are considering selling should visit https://www.bondwolfe.com/free-property-appraisal/, email [email protected] or call 0121 312 1212 or 01902 928 510 for advice or to arrange a free, no obligation valuation.

* Each property is subject to a reserve price which may be different from the guide price.  Please refer to the Important Information and legal pack(s) for further information and any additional fees which may apply.