We held our auction last Thursday (23rd April) behind closed doors with remote bidding only, having not been able to conduct viewings but despite the constraints managed a credible 65% success rate and almost £1m raised in sales (our last two auctions prior to this, being post Brexit boom, were 94% and 95% respectively and typically we are generating sales of £3.5m to £5.5m per sale).
The two biggest issues we’ve encountered are with tenanted properties where no inspections were possible and the majority of these lots were either withdrawn or postponed to our 18th June auction, and the fact that lending institutions have closed their doors making the process all but impossible for those seeking any form of gearing.
Vacant properties sold well, as we were at least able to undertake a detailed video tour which we uploaded to our YouTube channel and social media formats. This enabled people to at least take comfort in what they were buying and for some properties record prices were achieved (Abbeydale Road in Sheffield, guided at £115,000 sold for an incredible £212,000).
We offered some derelict barns at Girton, Newark which sold prior to auction to a cash buyer. Being semi-derelict barns in a quiet hamlet, the buyer was able to at least view the property enabling them to proceed to a very swift exchange. This deal had fallen apart numerous times before on a private treaty basis and the auction process did at least generate a swift unconditional exchange at a sensible price.
Selling land at auction is not an issue in our view as buyers can at least conduct viewings safely and also, they tend to be cash buyers. We expect prices to remain stable, to pre Covid conditions as these tend to be mid to longer term projects. So even if we have to hold our auction behind closed doors, we less deterred by that as the issue is with main stream buildings where access is an issue.
We are now taking entries for our 18th June auction and with an unconditional exchange on the fall of the hammer you could see completion as early as mid July.
