What happened at the residential property auctions in February 2024? 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.
February was a fairly dreary month in the property market generally. Prices in the wider market remained fairly static. While many agents reported an influx of new listings, new sales were hard to come by. It is by no means unusual now to browse the property portals and see houses unsold, even after a number of price reductions, for six months or more.
To cut a long story short this wasn’t reflected in the auctions market, however. The residential auctions were busy with 2,875 lots offered at the sales we track – a healthy number for this time of year and broadly in line with February last year.
A minor interesting statistic this month is that over four times as many lots were offered online as were offered at live/live streamed auctions.
The Auction House Network was top of the online pops in February, collectively offering a very sizable 900 lots and raising over £108m in the process. As might be expected Auction House London offered a major part or 530 of these lots and raised over £71m in the process.
At live/live streamed sales Barnard Marcus offered almost 300 lots and raised nearly £31m.
In line with the trends of recent months the percentage of lots sold at auctions in February was strong. 72.45% of all lots offered at auctions sold. Despite the large difference in lots offered the chances of selling were pretty much identical whether the sale was online or live.
Interestingly, three auctions managed to sell 100% of their lots and three others sold the vast majority (well over 90%+) of them.
The amount raised at the sales we track was £401.8m approximately. This marks a pretty strong performance. It is the third highest amount raised over the last year and around £25m more than last February.
The average sales price of an auction property in the UK in February 2024 was around £146,000 – around half the national average property price. This compared to around £119,000 last month and around £129,000 in February 2023.
Allsop raised £51.3m from the sale of 260 lots, representing a success rate of 85%, at its second residential auction of 2024 in February. The highest value lot sold under the hammer, a freehold semi-detached building in Shepherd’s Bush, sold after competitive bidding between a range of would-be buyers including owner-occupiers and developers for £1,275,000, having been guided at +£1m. Seven other lots sold for over £1m.
Richard Adamson, partner and residential auctioneer at Allsop, says: “Following the success of our January auction and a very strong result in our two day February sale, we are seeing clear signs that buyers are starting to return to the market after a turbulent 2023. There is good demand for sensibly priced investments and developments across the nation, particularly mixed-use properties and value add opportunities, however the key to success remains accurate pricing. We are currently taking instructions for our next auction on 26 and 27 March as we anticipate another large sale ahead.” Check out our February interview with Richard Adamson here.
Our residential auction returns for February 2024 suggest that it was a pretty good month for buyers, sellers and auctioneers alike. There’s really no sign of the slowdown that has been affecting the wider market.
Looking behind the numbers for a moment, these strong sales rates might suggest either a willingness of sellers to list their properties at competitive reserves, or strong interest from buyers, or both. Either way the returns tend to show that even when the wider residential sales market is slow the auctions market can continue to perform well and continue to be a quick way to buy and sell. Pricing levels suggest that there are some bargains to be had at residential auctions, but there is no sign of ‘fire sale’ pricing.
Looking forward, March is usually a pretty brisk month for the auctions too. A key thing to look out for will be market sentiment after this month’s Budget and the next interest rate announcement, whether it be up, down or hold, on 21 March. These could dictate whether the wider residential market starts to pick up in the rest of this year or continues its steady slowdown.
Check out our monthly updated statistics below, courtesy of the Essential Information Group (click on the key colours to highlight / dehighlight):
Live / Live Streamed Property Auctions Data
Online Property Auctions Data