Category: Auction
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We sell, rent, manage, survey, plan and advise...what can we do for you?
Inheritance tax (IHT) in the UK has just hit a new milestone, but not in a good way. HMRC collected £6.7 billion in IHT during the 2022–23 tax year (the latest published figures), up 12% from the previous year. That’s £710 million more taken from estates, marking a record high in IHT receipts.
Why the jump? Property values are up, but tax thresholds haven’t moved. The nil-rate band, the portion of an estate exempt from tax, has been frozen at £325,000 since 2009, and it’s not set to increase until at least April 2030. In the meantime, inflation and rising house prices are quietly dragging more families into the IHT net.
What’s this got to do with property auctions?… Everything.
If you own property, especially if it’s unencumbered or part of a portfolio, you are more likely than ever to be impacted by IHT. This results in a growing number of people rethinking how they manage their estates. For some, it means accelerating plans to gift assets. For others, it’s about turning bricks and mortar into cash more efficiently, before HMRC takes a bigger slice than expected.
That’s where property auctions come in. Auctions offer a fast, transparent, and often tax-savvy way to handle property sales, particularly in estate planning, probate, or inheritance management. Selling at auction can help executors and beneficiaries move quickly, realise true market value, and sometimes reduce future IHT exposure by shrinking the estate ahead of time.
The hidden numbers behind “Only 1 in 20”
Officially, only 4.62% of deaths in the UK triggered an IHT bill in 2022–23 (the latest published figures). That’s up from 4.39% the year before, a noticeable rise, but still a small-sounding percentage. However, many financial experts argue that this figure masks the actual impact on families.
As Nicholas Hyett from Wealth Club explains, the “1 in 20” stat is skewed because transfers between spouses are tax-free. So if one partner dies and leaves everything to their spouse, there’s no IHT due yet. Only when the second partner passes is the full estate assessed for tax. At that point, the 40% IHT rate kicks in on anything above the threshold (potentially £650,000 if both nil-rate bands are combined).
The bottom line? Far more families will ultimately be affected by IHT than headline numbers suggest.
Families are acting sooner
As the tax burden grows, more people are taking advice and action before it’s too late. That often includes:
An auction can offer a practical, time-sensitive solution in many of these scenarios, especially when multiple heirs are involved or where the estate needs to be liquidated quickly and cleanly
Auctions as an estate planning tool
More families are turning to property auctions, not just as a route to sell but as part of a broader estate strategy. Here’s why:
This is a powerful tool for executors. For homeowners concerned about leaving behind a tax burden, it’s a clean way to convert assets into liquid funds, potentially avoiding future tax complications for their heirs.
What’s next?
The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts IHT revenues to hit £9.1 billion in 2025–26 if no changes are made. That’s nearly double what was collected just 5 years ago.
Meanwhile, murmurs of future reforms continue. One area likely to face scrutiny is the gifting regime. If the Treasury tightens the rules on tax-free gifts during someone’s lifetime, that could close off a major planning avenue. This is why many families are acting now, even though the rules are still unclear.
Inheritance tax isn’t just a problem for the ultra-wealthy anymore. Middle and upper-middle-income families with modest property holdings are caught in the crossfire.
If you’re sitting on property and haven’t considered how it affects your estate, now’s the time to look ahead. Auctioning might not just be about getting a fair market price – it could be about protecting what you’ve worked for.
Our next auction is on 22nd October. If you would like to find out whether your land or property is suitable, and to book a no-obligation auction appraisal, then please contact Charles.
Our 25th June auction saw a lot sell for over £1.6 million in the room, one of our highest results.
Once again we had a variety of lots on offer from residential properties which required work, apartments, building land, an office and block of apartments, a development site, agricultural land, a pub, a mixed use property and residential investments.
2025 is proving to be a record breaking year for our auction department. So far this year we have offered 100 lots in our 3 auctions, 30% more than this time last year and sold 83 lots, 24% more than last year.
The full list of results are here:
Our next auction is on 13th August. If you would like to find out whether your land or property is suitable, and to book a no-obligation auction appraisal then please contact Charles Lovell, Head of Auction on 01280 818903 or email charles.lovell@robinsonandhall.co.uk
Our April auction, which took place last week, was our largest yet with 39 lots on offer!
We once again had a variety of lots including houses which needed refurbishment, bungalows, apartments, family houses, building plots, agricultural land, a fishing lake, offices, and a shop.
In 2024, we offered 150 lots at our 6 auctions and sold 130, a success rate of 87%! This year, so far we have offered 67 lots in our 2 auctions and sold 79%, and we are confident this figure will rise in the coming days when unsold lots get snapped up.
The full list of results are here:
Our next auction is on 25th June. If you would like to find out whether your land or property is suitable, and to book a no-obligation auction appraisal then please contact Charles.
Property portal Zoopla reported in February that the housing market is off to its strongest start in three years, with 12% more new sales agreed in January 2025 than in January 2024. Further good news for sellers is that prices are also up, with the boost in sales supporting a modest 2% rise.
This sees the average house price now at £267,700, £5,200 more than in 2024, partly due to first-time buyers trying to get on the property ladder before the stamp duty hikes are implemented in April. However, moves to ‘simplify responsible lending’ being put forward as part of the Government’s ‘growth mission’ may see a further jump in prices. Bank of England figures showed 66,526 mortgage deals being given the green light in December, up from 66,061 the previous month.
Are you considering selling your land or property?
Robinson & Hall Auctions may be able to help you. With an auction every other month, you could sell your land or property within 8 weeks. Contact the team to discuss whether your land or property is suitable for auction and they will be able to carry out a no-obligation auction appraisal by visiting the lot and discussing the options with you.
Lots which have sold particularly well at our auctions are small parcels of land, rental properties, disused buildings, properties with a short lease, properties where value can be added, and farms or houses which require lots of work.
View the latest auction results here.
To book a no-obligation auction appraisal or to find out how the auction department can help you, please contact Charles.
2024 has been another great year for the Auction department at Robinson & Hall. Our aims for this year, in addition to continuing our growth trajectory, were to expand the team, develop new relationships with estate agents to introduce suitable property, and to try to make the process of both selling and buying at auction less intimidating and more accessible.
Our growth has continued, and, already with an auction to go, we have exceeded the number of lots offered in 2023 by 133 and the number sold by 115. The percentage of lots sold is 87%, with the expectation that after the December auction, we will have a 20% improvement over last year.
The lot which performed the best over the guide price in 2024, was a three-acre paddock at Felmersham, which sold for nearly six times the guide price.
The fastest selling lot in 2024 was a flat in Shortstown. Sold as a late lot for a desperate seller, it was sold for £71,000 more than his aborted sale and just 13 days after we were instructed to sell!
The team was expanded at the beginning of June with the appointment of Lee Jackson who joined us as an Auction Lister. As an ex-professional golfer and coach, Lee possesses a natural ability to connect with people, and he has started on the long journey of gaining a broad knowledge of property auctions extremely well. New relationships have been formed by David Howard, our Business Development Manager, that concluded with successful sales on introductions from agents in Towcester, Tring, High Wycombe and Wolverton.
To make the process of buying and selling through our auction more accessible, we took a critical look at our website. We decided to start from scratch to create a completely new site with useful guides and contacts for both buyers and sellers, and one that is just as easy to navigate on mobile devices as it is on a laptop or PC. This took much longer than we had originally anticipated as our ideas expanded, and we were undertaking this work in amongst our normal duties of appraising property, reporting to potential clients, building catalogues, hosting open-house viewings and holding our auction at the Delta Marriott Hotel in Milton Keynes every two months. We were finally ready to launch the new site at the start of November and we are delighted with the response from people using it.
If you would like to book a no obligation auction appraisal to find out if your land or property is suitable for auction, then please contact me.
Another successful auction was had in August at our venue, the Delta Marriott Hotel in Milton Keynes. We hold our bi-monthly auctions there and buyers can bid in-room, online, by proxy or by telephone.
The full list of results can be found below:
We sell a variety of lots at our auctions, but those which sell particularly well are:
Have you seen our auction in action? Watch one of our lots sell at our August auction for £92,000 over the guide price.
We are now taking lots for our next auction. To find out if your land or property is suitable or to book a free, no obligation auction appraisal, then please call 01234 362899 or email auctions@robinsonandhall.co.uk
David Jones, Auctioneer at Robinson & Hall Auctions, provides a summary of what to expect at the August auction.
David comments about the auction market: “Obviously, I am a passionate advocate for auction sales. The speed, competition and certainty of the process suits most properties and most sellers. The transparency and the lack of fuss gives confidence to buyers.
Nevertheless, there are times in the property cycle when auction sales really come into their own. This is just such a time.
The market remains keen, but it is also cautious. There are plenty with cash looking for investments, but we all know that those needing to borrow will be less competitive. Everybody still wants to press on with selling and buying, but nobody wants to make a wrong move. Business goes on, with care.
We saw this in action at our June auction sale where the crowd in the saleroom was the largest since lockdown, and bidding for sensibly priced lots was enthusiastic. All bar two lots were sold on the day of the sale, but both those lots were sold a few days later to give an overall record of 100%. Both sellers and buyers walked away happy with their trades.
Our August sale looks to be equally popular, with more lots entered than for some time. We offer the usual mix of development projects, investment opportunities and land.”
We shall be pleased to see you in the saleroom on 3rd August. The auction takes place at 2.30 pm at the Delta Marriott Hotel, Milton Keynes. The catalogue can be downloaded here. Please join us on the livestream link if you are unable to attend in person, but do not forget to register with us beforehand if you intend to bid via livestream. Full details are available on our website.
We are now taking lots for our next auction. To find out if your land or property is suitable or to book a free, no obligation auction appraisal, then please call 01234 362899 or email auctions@robinsonandhall.co.uk
David Jones, Auctioneer at Robinson & Hall Auctions, provides a must watch summary of the June auction.
The room was jam-packed, and buyers were nervous, yet very much engaged and eager to discover whether they were going to win their preferred lot. We had 17 lots offered, once again a mixture of choice, and 14 lots sold in the room, one selling prior and two selling following. See the full results below:
One of our partner agents, Inskip and Davie, were presented with a T-shirt emblazoned with ‘100%’ to celebrate their 50th sold property. We have been working with them for over 10 years and sold all the properties they have referred.
We are now taking lots for our next auction. To find out if your land or property is suitable or to book a free, no obligation auction appraisal, then please call 01234 362899 or email auctions@robinsonandhall.co.uk
The impact from the political turmoil in September 2022 triggered a strong reaction within the money markets and with continuing rises in interest rates (10 successive ones to date), increased borrowing costs have certainly had a dampening effect on the property market, with considerable caution being exercised by many buyers. Following the first lock down in 2020, the combination of low interest rates, pent up demand and buyers with increased savings saw a surge in prices, particularly since there was a shortage of available stock. However, Rightmove reported that for the first time since the financial crash, average asking prices hadn’t increased at the start of 2023 and this adjustment in the market perhaps takes it back to pre-pandemic levels with added low levels of confidence.
One of the benefits of auction is that it helps to create a microclimate around any individual property. In attaching an attractive guide price, buyers come in ever greater numbers to the viewing sessions and in seeing strong interest from others, it helps to dispel anxiety about the future, giving greater confidence to bid higher and higher.
Lots are marketed within our catalogue, on the website and on all the major property portals, such as Rightmove and Zoopla. We also offer three open house viewing slots to applicable lots where anyone interested is welcome to just come along to view. People then have an opportunity to not only see the property but to see what the level of interest there is from other prospective buyers and to ask us questions about the property and the auction. This is an important point where we, the auctioneers, interact with buyers so we chose not to outsource this role to external viewing agents but to conduct these viewings ourselves, with full time staff from the auction department, in the weeks prior to the auction.
A good example of how well a property can sell was demonstrated in our February auction when we sold Dunster Gardens in Bedford. During a cold snap in December, this vacant four bedroom detached house suffered significant water damage following burst pipes. The agent who had been trying to sell the house with an asking price of £385,000 felt that given the damage and the owner’s need for a smooth sale now they were living in the USA, the auction route would be best so he recommended us. After having inspected the property and sent our report, the owners took the plunge and, wanting to be certain of a sale, actually set the starting price a little lower than our recommended amount. This certainly did the trick and with a steady stream of phone enquiries and very well attended viewing sessions, the property sold to a local buyer in the transparent and exciting atmosphere of the auction room for £380,000!
We are now taking lots for our next auction. To find out if your land or property is suitable or to book a free, no obligation auction appraisal, then please call Charles, Head of Auction on 01280 818903 or email charles.lovell@robinsonandhall.co.uk
With offices in Bedford and Buckingham, Robinson & Hall is a leading regional property consultancy established since 1882, and property auctioneering has been a notable specialism during this time. Head Auctioneer, David Jones, can be found on the rostrum every two months, offering residential, commercial and agricultural properties for local and national sellers.
After a ten year affiliation with Auction House (an association of professional regional auctioneers), Auction House Robinson & Hall is now relaunching as Robinson & Hall Auctions. David Jones comments “We thank Auction House for our time with them and we wish them well for the future. We will continue to offer a first class auction service to sellers across the region, but with a new website featuring improved usability for our buyers and with the freedom to innovate in this ever-changing world.”
Robinson & Hall Auctions pioneered the use of livestream auctions during the restrictions of lockdown, allowing buyers to bid from home while still watching a live auctioneer in an empty saleroom. Their livestream sales were a great success and provided a valuable service to their sellers through this difficult time.
Nevertheless, they were delighted to be among the first auctioneers to return to a live saleroom, in a move welcomed widely by sellers and buyers alike. Their Milton Keynes saleroom, just a few minutes from the M1, is ideally located for buyers from all over the country. Many are now enjoying the inimitable hustle and bustle of a live auction saleroom again, although the livestream facility remains available for all those who prefer the ease of modern technology.
David comments “Although we are re-branding, staff will all remain the same, as will our saleroom. Contact telephone numbers are unchanged, but we have brand new email addresses which are firstname.surname@robinsonandhall.co.uk.”
He continues “We look forward to working with all of our established contacts once again and welcoming new faces to our sales, under the Robinson & Hall Auctions banner. If you have any enquiries then please contact one of the team who will be very pleased to assist.”
Robinson & Hall Auctions is now taking lots for their next auction. To find out if your land or property is suitable or to book a free, no obligation auction appraisal, then please call 01234 362899 or email auctions@robinsonandhall.co.uk
