A 175-bedroom student accommodation block in Birmingham city centre is set to be auctioned with a guide price exceeding £850,000. The property, known as Londonderry House and situated at 2 Newton Street, has remained vacant since 2021 following a notice from fire authorities citing non-compliance with fire regulations.
Londonderry House is an eight-storey building constructed atop a car park near Aston University and Birmingham City University. Its ground floor features a reception, office with kitchen, laundry room, utility rooms for electricity and water, storage rooms, and a covered car park accessible via Dale End.
The upper floors are arranged into cluster units. Floor 9, accessed externally from the car park, comprises four cluster units with between four and six bedrooms each, totalling 21 bedrooms. Floors 10 to 16 each contain four cluster units-one with six bedrooms and three with five bedrooms-and a studio unit featuring an open-plan bedroom, kitchenette, and shower room, amounting to 154 bedrooms on these floors. In total, the building offers 175 bedrooms, 167 of which include ensuite facilities, alongside eight studio units. All units have electric heating.
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Each floor has access via lifts and staircases from the reception area, with communications rooms located on each half landing. The roof above Floor 16 houses the lift engine room, generator room, and a water tank room.
The building’s planning history reveals that in 2001 permission was granted to convert an office building into student and NHS keyworker accommodation. In 2022, planning consent was approved for adding three more storeys to the existing block, providing an additional 60 units and replacing the external cladding. However, this permission has since lapsed.
Londonderry House is held on a leasehold basis, with approximately 72 years remaining on a 96-year lease that began in April 2002. The lease carries a peppercorn ground rent and includes provisions related to negotiations for a revised 154-year lease with Birmingham City Council, although these discussions were not finalised.
The property is part of a larger catalogue of lots scheduled for auction by Bond Wolfe, commencing at 8.30am on Thursday, 22 October. The auction will be livestreamed online and offers remote bidding via proxy, telephone, or internet.