Buyers battle for £19k bargain Black Country homes
They started with slap-down price tags as low as £19,000 - but after the bidding hotted up the auctioned houses went for tens of thousands of more.
Hundreds of people attended the auction for 115 properties at Villa Park in Birmingham yesterday.
The lots from across West Midlands ranged from pubs to office blocks and two bed houses.
An end-of-terrace property in Chester Street, Wolverhampton started with a guideline price of £19,000.
Despite it needing a complete renovation and being currently too dangerous to view inside, there was huge interest with the house eventually selling fro £100,000.
Another £19,000 house, in Dilloways Lane, Willenhall, went for £72,000. The vandalised four-bedroom house was purchased by Mohammed Bashir, aged 50, from Walsall. He said: "At low prices these were great investments.
"I will renovate them, rent them out and then hopefully make some money."
Wolverhampton's The Corner House Resource Centre at Dunstall Road, complete with planning permission for six apartments, sold for £330,000, after a guide price of £220,000.
It was followed by the £370,000 sale of Bramerton House, Bramerton Close, Wolverhampton, which started at £230,00.
Auctioneer Rory Daly got things underway with the warning: "When the gavel is flung, gravity will beat you and it will be too late.
"It is great to see so many people here but make sure you leave with what you want."
More than £1 million had been spent within the first hour of the auction, with Perry Barr office building Tamebridge House alone going for £915,000 after a bidding war saw its price rise from £750,000.
Another Wolverhampton home, at Windsor Road, Bilston, was sold to 48-year-old Birmingham man Gurdip Rai for £92,000 after a guide price was set at £49-£52,000.
He said: "I want to get into property to make some money for the future and this was my first buy.
"I have been to auctions before and bid but never won.
"It feels strange and I was very nervous filling in the paper work but now I feel good.
"My plan is to renovate the house and rent it out."
Other properties with a low guide price also saw their final sale figure increase following a flurry of raised bids, including 20 Hereford Street, Walsall, which shot up from £30,000 to £73,000.
