Online auction house proves cynics wrong - and says more will follow

An auction house says it was “scoffed at” four years ago when it began offering online options to customers - but now it’s proved them wrong by selling £200m of property.

“For sellers, going online opens their property up to prospective buyers from all over the globe and gives them much wider exposure than a traditional sale would. It’s also usually cheaper” claims Richard Reed, head of property at John Pye Property.

“We’ve been offering online-only property auctions for four years now, but when we initially launched in 2013 a lot of our competitors scoffed at the idea. Since then we’ve offered over £200m worth of property through our monthly auctions” he adds.

“We predict that we’ll see more and more agents and auctioneers move online in the next five years, either through these sorts of mergers or by offering their own online-only platforms.”

He also says the recent £100m-plus merger of online agencies Emoov, Tepilo and Urban demonstrates the growing power of the digital property market.

“Buyers in particular want to have all of the necessary information at their fingertips when viewing properties and the internet is ideal for this. It also allows them to view a much higher number of properties, as well as ones in different areas and even overseas” says Reed.

John Pye Property is part of John Pye & Sons Ltd, which has five trading divisions including retail business assets, luxury, property and vehicles.