Last year, Auction House sold 3,680 lots from almost 5,000 lots offered (4,971), representing a success rate of 74%.
Roger Lake, Auction House Founding Director, said: “This is a remarkable result for 2018, especially against such a challenging background, with political uncertainty a significant and ever-present factor. It’s good to add yet another step to our market share staircase - at a time when nearly every one of our competitors has seen volumes falling – and achieve incremental growth for the 11th year in succession.
What’s more, there seems to have been a noticeable fall in the sector nationally, with figures suggesting that between December 2017 and November 2018 the market dropped by around 7%. If this trend continued into December, as seems likely, it means that Auction House would have delivered ahead of the market by a massive 14% over the course of the year.”
The figures for December were also well ahead of expectations. Last month the group sold 430 lots from 612 offered - a success rate of 70.3% with over £50m raised (£52,792,108).
Roger added: “Not only were December’s figures impressive, but our early listings for 2019 auctions are already looking good too. There are currently over 220 properties due to be offered in forthcoming sales, including around 20 lots in our National Online Auction on the 24th January.
Interestingly, many vendors are now telling us that they want to sell this tax year and before Brexit Day. For this reason, we expect entry levels to stay strong in the first quarter.
Whilst buyer numbers were down in the final quarter of last year, we didn’t experience the dramatic drop forecast by many. Local knowledge and keen pricing are the key ingredients for successful auctions in a difficult climate, and Auction House, with its 40 auction rooms, is best-positioned to deliver.
Looking further ahead, whatever happens with the Brexit process will inevitably have an impact on the market; but the latest figures certainly mark a very positive end to 2018.”
