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You may already be too late, says Auction House, after record sales
Auction House, operating as Auction House Robinson & Hall in your area, is reporting its best ever half year results in lots sold and money raised.
In the first six months of 2022, the group sold 1,975 lots from 2,338 offered; a success rate of 85% and raised over £316m in the process. This marks a 12% increase in sales since the company’s previous best figures in 2019 when 1,752 lots were sold.
Commenting on the figures, Charles Lovell, Head of Auction House Robinson & Hall, said: “These latest figures represent yet another important milestone in our success story. To continue to beat previous records year on year like this is nothing short of remarkable.”
“Not only do buyers and sellers increasingly appreciate unconditional auction as a method of sale, it’s providing the perfect answer for those looking for that essential combination of speed and certainty, which the private treaty market simply cannot provide.”
Charles’ comments come as the latest figures from Zoopla show the average time taken from searching for a home to exchange via the traditional private treaty method is rising – currently standing at around 170 days, or five and a half months.
Charles added: “In the height of the British summer, it seems ridiculous to suggest that those wanting to sell their home via private treaty before Christmas may already be too late. But that’s the unfortunate reality.”
“Contrast that with unconditional auction when a few weeks of active marketing before the date of the auction can lead to the deal being done on the fall of the hammer. Whilst selling prices in estate agency often end up lower than the quoted guide price, the bidding process in the competitive environment of an auction means the final selling price is often higher. For many properties out there, there’s no better way!”
We are now taking lots for our next auction. To find out how we can help you or to book a no obligation auction appraisal, please call 01234 362899 or email robinsonandhall@auctionhouse.co.uk
If you haven’t ever considered auction to sell your land or property then now certainly is the time. With a record success rate of selling 93% of lots in 2021, more sellers are turning to the auction route and an abundance of buyers are looking for their ideal lot.
What sells well at auction?
Any kind of property can sell at auction, from hovels to mansions and bare land to vast warehouses but some types work better than others.
Examples
11 Moor Lane, Bedford MK42 9UR
Guide Price: £140,000
The owners of this much-loved family home were the original council tenants who first occupied in 1951 but the house now needed to sell to help with the cost of their joint care home fees.
Acting with power of attorney, their children appointed us to sell the property, wanting a quick, clean sale that would show the house was sold for ‘fair market value’. The last houses which sold in the road achieved £210,000 and £215,000 but these were both more modern inside. Allowing for the cost of refurbishment, we all expected it to achieve less than £200,000 so were delighted when the hammer went down at a staggering £251,000.
6 Clare Cottages, Clare, Thame, Oxfordshire OX9 7HQ
Guide Price: £190,000
Having been on the market since July 2019, we sold this cottage in June 2020 amid severe lockdown restrictions for £275,000 – 50% more than the guide price! We also sold Nos 2-5 Clare Cottages at the same time and totalled £1,220,000.
The highest offer for all the cottages secured by two previous estate agents was £750,000!
Examples
Mad Dog Paddock, High Street, Little Odell, Bedfordshire
Guide Price: £125,000
Having been refused permission to convert this concrete portal frame barn into a residential property, and then refused again at appeal, the sellers decided to sell. Despite the negative planning history, we felt it would still be appealing to buyers as it is set between residential property within an attractive hamlet, with 8 acres of land to the rear. Our expectations were that it should achieve circa £200,000 so when it sold in our first in-room, post lockdown, auction in October 2021 for £450,000, our clients were delighted.
Being owned by a charity, a sale by auction also helped prove the sale was at market value for compliance with the Charities Act regulations.
Land on the South Side of Nash Road, Thornborough, Buckinghamshire
Guide Price: £55,000
Small parcels of land near houses always do well at auction. This 1 ½ acre paddock was no exception and despite there being a restriction on the title and no planning consent, in December 2021 it still sold for £170,000!
Example
28 Stotfold Road, Arlesey, Bedfordshire SG15 6XT
Guide Price: £160,000
With a sitting tenant to work around, the seller was a local solicitor acting as executor to a deceased client’s estate who needed the property sold to complete his duties. The house had been valued (with vacant possession) by local agents at around £350,000, however a sitting tenant occupied it, a sprightly 75-year-old and reluctant to allow viewings due to the pandemic. Having met with the tenant, it was agreed we would make a video tour, take photos and produce a floor plan. It sold for £275,000, over £100,000 above the guide price and almost 80% of the vacant full market value.
Example
The Old Mission Hall, Middle Weald, Calverton, Buckinghamshire
Guide Price £25,000
The beneficiary of this sale was a charity which had commissioned a formal ‘Red Book’ valuation from a firm of chartered surveyors for this brick building. It sat close to the road in open countryside between two hamlets and was ‘valued’ at £30,000.
Our guide price for auction was stepped back a little from the valuation figure and after intense interest and very strong bidding, the property sold in February 2021 for £80,000
If you would like to find out if your land or property is suitable for auction, please call Charles Lovell.
Leading property auctioneer, Auction House Robinson & Hall, has applauded the resilience and ingenuity demonstrated throughout the sector over the last 18 months.
Charles Lovell, Head of Auction House Robinson & Hall, says that since the beginning of the pandemic, the industry has moved heaven and earth to continue to work for their sellers and buyers. This has involved embracing cutting edge technology which has powered the entire industry forward by at least five to ten years and has changed the way auctioneers conduct their businesses forever.
“As the pandemic begins to come under control and we are all getting used to living with Covid, we have since returned to the room to allow buyers the option to either bid in person or online.”
“Auction House has been in the vanguard of companies adapting to the new environment we all now live in, and by offering livestream and online auctions for the last 18 months has seen very impressive volumes of sales! We have offered 108 lots and sold 100 of them, a 93% success rate!”
As well as embracing new technology, we have learnt to be nimble on our feet and adapt to ever changing circumstances – for example days before our December auction in Milton Keynes, we were informed the hotel was to be used as a vaccine centre and that our booking was cancelled. Within hours a new venue had been booked and our database had been informed.
Charles added: “Auction House is one of many businesses across the country which has proved that it can rise to the challenge and become inventive and entrepreneurial. We should be proud of what has been achieved and look forward to the year ahead with confidence”.
The deadline to enter a lot into our next auction is Friday 28th January so don’t delay. To find out if your land or property is suitable, please contact 01234 362899 or email robinsonandhall@auctionhouse.co.uk
We are delighted to announce that Auction House Robinson & Hall is bringing sales back into the auction room from 14th October 2021.
Charles Lovell, Head of Auction House Robinson & Hall, says that we are thrilled to be bringing our auctions back to the room. After over a year of live streamed auctions, which have been incredibly successful and seen our sold percentages reach a record level of late 90%, we are looking forward to in-person bidding and the atmosphere that in-room auctions brings.
He explains: “As live stream sales have been so successful, you can still bid by proxy or phone and watch the auction live if in room doesn’t work for you, but we are giving local buyers the opportunity to bid in-room too.”
The pandemic has seen the auction market remain strong and an increase in the younger buyer. Auction House analysis indicates that there has been a 10% increase in 18–24 year olds buying at auction and a 5% increase in the 25-34 age category during the pandemic, whilst the engagement by those aged over 65 has stayed exactly the same.
Charles added: “We need to take care not to disrupt this new demographic won over the course of the Covid crisis so our next in-room auction on 14th October will test the water.”
During August, a traditionally quiet month, we sold 15 properties from 16 offered – a success rate of 94%! Year to date sales are impressive with Auction House recording 2,173 properties sold from 2,625 offered – an impressive success rate of 82.8%.
Our next auction is held on Thursday 14th October from 2.30pm at Venue 360, 20 Gipsy Lane, Luton LU1 3JH. If you are considering selling your land or property by auction then please call 01234 362899 to book a free, no obligation auction appraisal.
The short answer is to achieve the best price and to sell quickly.
Small parcels of land always attract buyers with dreams of gaining some sort of planning consent. Whilst some buyers will proceed with a purchase without planning consent, many will want a conditional contract and won’t complete until planning consent is gained. If the planning response is negative, that hopeful type of ‘buyer’ will evaporate but not without wasting money and time for the seller.
To avoid being let down, many sellers consider a private sale to a neighbour. The difficulty here is that other prospective buyers can be excluded from the sale process leaving the seller with people who think all paddock land is only worth ‘agricultural rates’, whatever they believe that to be.
At auction everyone has an equal and fair chance of being the successful buyer. This helps to attract people who are genuinely interested but otherwise would feel their chances of success are slim. It encourages these buyers to bid against each other, often achieving far more than either a private treaty or private sale would do.
Offers can still be made prior to the auction date. If an offer is accepted prior to the auction then the sale can still progress under an auction contract, with contracts exchanged on the acceptance of an offer and the full deposit paid. Once advised of this, those ‘hopeful’ people who wanted to ‘offer’ suddenly don’t, yet the serious buyers will remain engaged, free to bid on the lot to their very maximum, or at least more than any underbidder.
Click here to see examples of land that has sold at auction.
For more information or to book a no obligation auction appraisal, please contact 01234 362899 or email robinsonandhall@auctionhouse.co.uk
Auction House Robinson & Hall, our auction department, has offered 48 lots so far this year and sold 46 of them, a staggering 96%. The lots offered have ranged from studio flats to large family homes and small parcels of land to an entire farm! Those which sell particularly well at auction are land, properties with short leases, properties which require work, disused buildings, straightforward rental properties and land or property where value can be added.
Our last live streamed auction on 17 June saw 10 lots offered and 100% sold. The full results can be found here:
Commenting on the figures, Charles Lovell, Head of Auction House Robinson & Hall, said: “A fantastic result! We have seen enthusiastic bidding and an appetite for purchasing property that has continued undiminished, even while the pandemic and restrictions have continued.”
Charles believes property prices are going to continue to hold their own for some time to come, despite rumours that a house price crash is on the horizon.
He explains: “For a house price crash to happen, a mix of certain ingredients has to be in place. For example, during difficult times like these, there would have to be a lack of Government intervention and support. But, as we’ve seen from measures like quantitative easing, extensive furlough and the stamp duty holiday, the Government has already done a considerable amount to prop up the market.”
“There also seems to be no appetite on the part of the Government to pay back the massive debt that has been accrued over the pandemic, which would certainly act as a huge deflationary pressure. So, with all of that taken into account, whilst we may see a cooling off in the market, I honestly think it’s difficult to envisage a house price crash in the near term.”
Charles’s upbeat analysis was echoed by industry analysts and forecasters who took part in Auction House’s recent annual conference, which was held virtually for the very first time via live video stream in early June.
Charles added: “Most importantly, the phenomenal success of Auction House means that there is a plethora of happy vendors out there, successfully selling to lots of interested buyers, with bidding staying keen and prices remaining buoyant. And that’s a situation we expect to continue for some time to come.”
We are now taking lots for our next auction. To find out if your land or property is suitable for auction, please contact 01234 362899 or email robinsonandhall@auctionhouse.co.uk
The Gables, Little Green Lane, Caddington, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1 4EW
This detached chalet house had extensive cracks throughout and an ongoing subsidence claim. It was originally due to enter our April 2020 auction but due to the pandemic, we offered the property in May instead at £320,000. This guide price was slightly above our recommended level as generally a lower guide price will encourage more interest in the property. Only eight people viewed and the feedback was negative, so we withdrew the property to allow the seller to agree a settlement figure with his insurers. The best offer post withdrawal was £275,000.
Once the seller had agreed a settlement with his insurers at the end of 2020 and been paid, we offered the property in our February 2021 auction, without the benefit of any continuation of insurance. This time it was offered at our recommended guide price of £250,000 and the reaction was totally different. A full viewing schedule saw 32 viewers, a number of pre-auction offers were rejected and the property sold in the auction for £370,000.
For more information, or to find out if your land or property is suitable for auction, please contact 01234 362899 or email robinsonandhall@auctionhouse.co.uk
Our February and April auctions have seen 38 lots offered and 36 sold, an impressive 95%. Our success is shared with fellow franchises – Auction House UK has announced that the first three months of 2021 have been the best ever in the 14-year history of the group.
Charles Lovell, Head of Auction House Robinson & Hall, said: “These are the sorts of figures which will really make our competitors sit up and take notice! Auction House has turned into the F1 of property auctioneers – and the truth is, there’s plenty of mileage left in the tank!”
“This would be a superb set of figures in conventional times but after having to deal with a global pandemic for the past twelve months, they are nothing less than exceptional.”
“A year ago, who would have thought that a business which used to rely on holding room auctions could continue to flourish through three national lockdowns and a ban on people gathering together? It’s incredible to see how our teams have not only adapted to the new way of working, they have positively embraced it, with online auctions instantly gathering momentum and our livestream sales attracting record numbers of registered bidders. Our April auction attracted nearly 500 visitors.”
Our full April results are shown below:
For more information, or to find out if your land or property is suitable for auction, please contact 01234 362899 or email robinsonandhall@auctionhouse.co.uk
A surge in the number of family homes being sold by Auction House has seen its average selling price rocket by 40% year on year across the country, from £103,400 in 2019 to £145,500 now.
The group, operating as Auction House Robinson & Hall in this area, has made over £300 million worth of property sales in the year so far, well ahead of any other residential auctioneer. Cumulative sales for 2020 currently stand at 2,300 lots sold from 2,913 offered, at a strong success rate of 79%.
Commenting on the figures, Charles Lovell, Head of Auction House Robinson & Hall, said: “The pandemic has certainly been challenging, however we have adapted and introduced working practices to keep buyers, sellers and ourselves as safe as possible so that not only are we listing more lots, we are also selling more family homes.”
At £63 million, last month’s total value of sales was the highest the group has raised in any September over 12 years of business. During the month, Auction House sold 433 lots from 533 offered, and delivered an impressive success rate of 81.2%.
Charles explained: “Clearly, the auctions market is returning to pre-Covid levels of activity. Remote bidding is now fully accepted as the norm around the country, and buyers have grown in confidence with bidder numbers continuing to rise. Sellers too are again choosing auctions, where the selling prices achieved are regularly well beyond expectations.
Sellers are demonstrating their trust in auctions, and understandably have a growing desire to sell in the current high-demand environment.”
October was one of our largest auctions to date, selling a variety of lots resulting in an impressive success rate of 88%. The full results can be viewed here.
Charles continues “We are entering the colder months, so now is a great time to sell any empty property, and with auctions you will get a quick sale.”
We are now taking lots for our live streamed 3rd December auction at 2.30pm. Deadline to enter a lot is Friday 6th November so don’t delay! Please call 01234 362899 or email robinsonandhall@auctionhouse.co.uk
