Last month we could see a slight but noticeable change of mood in auctions. Properties no longer sold at the ‘inflated’ prices as they had done in July but still the demand for well-priced and attractive properties remains high.

This year, we have also sold over £7,000,000 worth of properties in auctions to date. We continue to review approximately 1,000 auction entries monthly and have done so for the last decade or so. We believe we have a good idea about which properties perform well in the auctions and which properties would struggle. There are different market forces that have impacted things temporarily such as SDLT changes, COVID restrictions, Brexit, elections etc. This article is written to give you an insight into what types of properties perform well and those that struggle.

Developments
So far this year we have seen quite a good demand for developments. The reason for these developments going into auction was to provide speed and certainty to the sellers that might have had offers before, but deals fell through or they simply didn’t want to wait 6-9 months for a private treaty sale to materialize. Very few people can predict what can happen in such a period of time. So, even agreed offers leave little comfort to sellers.

On average we achieved 10-15% above the guide price. The latest site we sold was in Torquay. The former Cockington School was offered with planning permission for four houses and seven flats. It was offered with a guide price of £490,000+ and after some exciting bidding in the last few minutes it sold for £560,000.

In recent months we also sought a site with planning permission for 19 flats and two commercial properties in Banbury, which sold for £750,000. We also sold
our own development site in Tooting with planning permission for four houses for £650,000. So, in our own experience auctions performed extremely well for those developments and provided us and our sellers with certainty of the auction contract.