In the week of 14 to 20 September, 2,253 lots were offered across the UK, down from 2,642 the week before, while the median guide price rose from £99,000 to £120,000. The larger shift was at the top end. With Allsop, Savills, Acuitus and BidX1 all holding sales, 47 lots were guided at £1 million or more, against six the previous week.
A week ago, 3,268 lots were scheduled for these seven days, so 1,015 fewer were offered than listed. The largest identified difference was Pattinson’s rolling online sales, which had 558 lots listed for the week and offered 146.
Wednesday 16 September was the busiest day, with 795 lots, including 264 from McHugh & Co, 131 from Savills on the second day of its two-day sale, 104 from Auction House and 71 from Under The Hammer. Thursday had 742, including Allsop’s residential sale (280 lots), a further 119 from McHugh & Co, 71 from Under The Hammer and 37 from Acuitus.
The week in numbers
- 2,253 lots offered at auction across the UK, down from 2,642 the week before
- £120,000 median guide price, up from £99,000
- 40% of lots guided under £100,000
- The £100,000 to £250,000 band held 37% of lots, and 16% sat between £250,000 and £500,000
- 155 lots carried guides of £500,000 or more, of which 47 were £1 million or more
That top end is 7% of guided lots, against 4% the week before, and it came from a handful of rooms: nine of the week’s ten largest guides were offered by Acuitus, Allsop, Savills or BidX1.
The week’s biggest lots
- Acuitus had the two largest guides of the week on Thursday 17 September: 21 retail units around Market Square, Well Croft and Kirkgate in Shipley, West Yorkshire, at £3.8 million, and One The Glanty, Staines, a four-storey freehold commercial building of about 6,400 square metres, at £3 million. It also guided 4-6 Broad Street, Reading at £2.425 million.
- Allsop’s largest lot was Elsdale House, 15 Elsdale Street, Hackney, a freehold building of 12 flats, at £2.77 million, followed by 4 Park Avenue, Watford at £2.2 million.
- Savills guided 6-14 Centrium, Station Approach, Woking at £2.6 million and nearly 2.6 hectares of land on the west side of Hatch Lane, West Drayton at £2.5 million, both on Wednesday 16 September.
By location, London led with 222 lots, well ahead of Bristol, Stoke-on-Trent, Nottingham and Birmingham.
Coming up
3,016 lots are scheduled for 21 to 27 September at a median guide of £150,000, with 189 guided at £500,000 or more and 27 at £1 million or more. As this week showed, the number offered can end up well below the number listed, particularly in the rolling online sales. The rooms to watch:
- BidX1: 275 lots on 24 September, the largest single catalogue of the week
- Auction House: around 330 lots across regional sales, with 130 on 22 September and 127 on 24 September
- Town & Country Property Auctions: 160 lots on 23 September
- Pattinson: around 510 lots listed across its daily sales
- Online Property Auction Group: 62 lots on 23 September
- Future Property Auctions: 73 lots on 24 September
By location, London leads with 166 lots, followed by Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Liverpool, Sheffield and Blackpool.
Worth knowing: when a lot comes back
Two of this week’s lots will look familiar to readers of our 17 to 23 August review. Regency House, 75-77 St Mary’s Road, Sheffield, a 75-unit leasehold building, headlined Allsop’s sale on 20 August at a guide of £2.5 million and was back in Allsop’s catalogue on 17 September at the same guide. 19 East Place, West Norwood, offered by BidX1 at £2.4 million on 20 August, returned to BidX1 on 17 September guided at £1.9 million.
A lot can reappear for several reasons: bidding did not reach the reserve, the winning buyer failed to complete, or the seller withdrew it before the sale. The listing does not always say which, so it is worth asking the auctioneer.
A guide price reflects the seller’s minimum expectation, and advertising rules require the reserve to sit close to it. A lower guide the second time round therefore usually signals a lower reserve. It does not tell you what the lot will sell for, and popular lots regularly go well above guide.
Either way, do not rely on what the legal pack said last time. Packs can be revised between sales, and special conditions, searches and fees can all change, sometimes in an addendum issued close to the auction. Read the current pack and the latest addendum, or have them reviewed, before you bid.
Data: aggregated by Aedifai from publicly listed auction lots across UK auction houses. Lot totals cover every listing; guide prices are as published by the auctioneers, and medians, bands and percentages cover only lots with a published guide (2,238 of 2,253 this week).
