A Seller's Perspective on Property Auctions

When people talk about auction, they often focus on the properties. In practice, it’s the people behind each instruction, and the circumstances they’re dealing with, that explain why auction is chosen as the route to sale.

Sellers rarely come to auction without a clear reason. It’s usually prompted by a change in circumstances, where a decision needs to be made and there is a focus on certainty and timings. In those situations, auction provides a clear and practical route to sale where an open-ended process isn’t appropriate.

That might be a couple going through a divorce, where a property needs to be sold fairly and cleanly, without uncertainty or delay. It might be a probate sale, where executors are handling a deceased estate and want a defined route to sale that allows matters to be brought to a conclusion rather than drawn out over months.

In those situations, the properties involved can vary widely. They may include houses requiring work, long-held family homes, or assets that simply need to be dealt with, and they can be located on a residential street, in a town centre, or somewhere else entirely.

Alongside private instructions, we also act for public bodies and institutions. In this month’s auctions alone, we’re acting for more than ten local authorities on the disposal of land and commercial property, where timing is often a key consideration, particularly where completion within the current financial year matters.

At the same time, we work with national clients operating at scale. This month includes a 40-plus-lot instruction from a single national client, following a series of disposals over recent months that has already seen more than 100 separate assets sold through the same process.

We also work closely with estate agents who want to offer more to their clients. Auction sits alongside private treaty as another route to market, particularly where speed and certainty are important. That may be following a sale falling away elsewhere, or where a seller needs a clear and reliable outcome. For agents, it allows them to retain client relationships while broadening the service they offer.

In every case, the same three factors sit behind the decision to use auction: speed, certainty of sale and transparency throughout the process. It’s this combination that continues to make auction a practical solution across a wide range of situations.