The auction market stepped up a gear in the week of 17 to 23 August. Across the UK, 1,323 lots were offered, up from 1,053 the week before, and the median guide price jumped from £120,000 to £160,000. Thursday 20 August was the day that did it: the commercial-heavy catalogues of Allsop and BidX1 both ran, pulling the whole week’s numbers upward.
That is worth pausing on, because it is how auction statistics work: a week-to-week move in the median usually says more about which auctioneers held sales than about property prices. When the big commercial and London rooms are in the calendar, the median climbs; in a week of regional residential sales, it settles back. Read weekly numbers as a picture of what was on offer, not as a price index.
The week in numbers
- 1,323 lots offered at auction across the UK
- £160,000 median guide price
- 29% of lots guided under £100,000
- The largest band was £100,000 to £250,000, with 40% of lots
- 100 lots carried guides above £500,000, of which 14 were above £1 million
The shape of that distribution is the auction market in miniature: the bulk of stock sits below £250,000, where investors, refurbishers and first-time landlords compete, with a thin but valuable top end of commercial investments and development opportunities.
The week’s biggest lots
Thursday 20 August owned the top of the market:
- The largest guide of the week was £5.25 million, for a former car park on London Road, Romford, offered through BidX1.
- BidX1 also guided 19 East Place in West Norwood, London SE27, at £2.4 million.
- Allsop’s sale the same day was headlined by a £2.5 million guide at Regency House, 75-77 St Mary’s Road, Sheffield, with further seven-figure lots at £2.15 million and £1.5 million.
Coming up
The next seven days have 3,107 lots scheduled at a median guide of £120,000, a reminder of the same lesson in reverse: with the big regional catalogues running, the median steps back down. The rooms to watch:
- Future Property Auctions: 630 lots on 27 August, the largest single catalogue of the week
- Auction House: 271 lots across its regional sales on 2 September
- Pattinson: 177 lots on 28 August and a further 126 on 1 September
- BTG Eddisons: 181 lots on 27 August
- Savills: 156 lots on 2 September
By location, London leads the coming fortnight with over 120 lots, followed by Liverpool, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Blackpool, Birmingham and Manchester.
Worth knowing: what a guide price is (and is not)
A guide price is the auctioneer’s indication of where bidding is expected to start, not a valuation and not the price the lot will sell for. The reserve, the confidential minimum the seller will accept, is typically set within a margin of the guide. Popular lots regularly sell well above guide, which is worth remembering when a figure looks too good to be true: a low guide is also a marketing tool to fill the room.
One practical note for anyone bidding for the first time: the legal pack for a lot is often uploaded or updated only days before the sale. Whatever the guide says, the pack is where the real story of a property lives, from title and tenancies to charges and covenants. Read it, or have it reviewed, before you raise a hand.
Data: aggregated by Aedifai from publicly listed auction lots across UK auction houses. Guide prices are as published by the auctioneers; medians and counts cover lots with a published guide (1,255 of 1,323 this week).
