April Property Auction Market Update

Market Levels Off?

How did the residential property auctions perform in March 2025? In this monthly update we will take a closer look at current trends in sales volumes, percentages sold, amounts raised and other interesting trends in the residential auctions market.

Number of lots offered

Spring is usually a steady period for the residential auctions. This March lot numbers offered at the auctions we track fell back very slightly (around 4%) compared to February with just over 3,000 properties going under the hammer.

Interestingly though lot numbers were still slightly ahead of the average over the last year, and slightly (about 5%) up on March 2024.

The largest sales were held, as is often the case, by Barnard Marcus, the Auction House network and Savills. All three auction houses had smaller sales by lot numbers than their large sales the previous month though.

Percentages sold

The percentage of lots sold at sales is always an interesting indicator of the market. It reflects not only buyers’ interest in buying, but also perhaps the quality of the lots.

Percentages sold in March were similar to February at just under 72% and a shade ahead of the medium-term average. Sales were stronger at live sales with three in every four properties offered this way finding a buyer.

In short, there still seems to be strong interest in buying at residential auctions.

Amount raised

In March 2025 the total amount raised at the auctions we track was very similar to February at around £451m – even though there were slightly fewer sales and lot numbers than the previous month.

Interestingly this figure was £45m up on March last year and 3% up on the long term average amount raised.

Average amount per sale

The average price of a property sold at a UK residential auction this March was around £204,000 – £10,000 or so higher than last month but similar to the average price at the end of 2024.

Comment

Liverpool based property auction house Sutton Kersh Auctions sold just over £9m of property, from an offer of 100 lots, at their first auction of the year – with many selling in the two weeks before the sale.

Cathy Holt, Associate Director, reported: “We had a fantastic catalogue of stock to start the year and it was good to see so many buyers from across the country interested in the properties we had on offer, which in turn resulted in bidding wars and great results for our vendors. Our next auction is on 3rd April and it will be interesting to see the buyers preferences on lots. Last year the demand for residential properties suitable for owner occupation was exceptionally high, and we expect this trend to continue.”

Summary

In March the economic news was fairly gloomy. The interest rate didn’t fall as some had hoped, and inflation rose slightly.

The Spring Statement (or Spring Budget) added to the gloom, with confirmation that Stamp Duty on property purchases in England would increase to its pre-2023 level (and in fact more for investors). Although this happened after a majority of March’s auctions had been held of course.

However, it’s probably fair to say that the residential market didn’t reflect this gloom. Rather, it levelled off slightly. The market didn’t see anything like a spring surge but it didn’t drop off either. There was still a good amount of buying and selling.

Going forward historic data tends to suggest that it’s not unusual for the market to level in the spring. This is likely due to the Easter bank holiday. That didn’t take place in March this year but will likely affect the April figures instead.

Also going forward many will be watching to see what impact the ‘Trump tariffs’, just announced, have on the global economy and in turn, perhaps, on the property market here.

Check out our monthly updated statistics below, courtesy of the Essential Information Group (click on the key colours to highlight / dehighlight):