A dreary housing market? Not for this auctioneer...

Recent figures from the mainstream housing market may suggest a disappointing performance so far this year but Auction House, the UK’s largest property auctioneer, says it has seen the highest number of April sales in its 11 year history.

The auctioneer sold a total of 306 lots during the month - a 16 per cent rise on the 264 sales in the same period of 2017, with a combined value of £43.6m. 

This included the sale of the 1,000th lot this year – a milestone reached one month earlier than last year.

Auction House founding director Roger Lake says the figures are impressive given that the market is even more challenging that last year. 

“To have continued delivering improved sales results is a remarkable achievement, especially when the property market as a whole is experiencing a bumpy ride, and with all the uncertainties of Brexit still ahead of us. It only serves to prove once again the attraction of auction as a speedy, secure and successful method of sale” he says.

Cumulatively, Auction House has seen 1,032 sales in the first four months of 2018 compared to 980 during the same period last year; the total raised of £129,980,271 compared to £123m between January and April 2017.

“Our success rates remain on a par with previous years at around 76 per cent at a time when other auctioneers are seeing their success rates fall. Our healthiest performances lie outside the south east of England – particularly in the Midlands and North West, where we’ve seen some strong gains” he adds. 

“It would appear that the northern half of the country is no longer so rigidly dependent on what happens in London, but is now more influenced by its own regional factors. Nationwide however, properties needing renovation are selling well ahead of the summer months when work to them can most easily be carried out” Lake concludes.