Property auction sales rise by 11.3% as sellers come face to face with cooling housing market

Research from digital property pack provider Moverly, reveals that there has been an 11.3% increase in the number of home sellers turning to the auction room to combat cooling housing market conditions.

Moverly analysed historic data on the property auction market, looking at the number of homes sold at auction, the average price of an auction property and the total value of property sold, to see whether a cooling housing market has further increased people’s interest in the auction room.

Buying and selling property at auction was once the reserve of adventurous or professional property players, but the rise of online auctions has created accessibility for normal, everyday buyers and sellers to get involved.

The research shows that the number of properties coming to auction in the UK has increased by 11.3% in the past year, rising from 13,854 lots in 2021/22 to 15,424 in 2022/23.

While the average price of an auction property has declined by -1.8% year on year to £190,871, there was still a staggering £2.9 billion worth of residential property sold at auction in 2022/23.

According to 2022/23 figures, the region in which the most properties are going under the hammer is the North West (2,839) followed by Yorkshire & Humber (2,107).

But the biggest annual increase in the number of auction properties has been recorded in Scotland (53.8%) followed by the South West (26.4%).

While auction prices have cooled across the majority of regions in the last year, some parts of the UK have still seen prices rise, including Scotland (20.5%), Yorkshire & Humber (2.4%), the West Midlands (1%), and North East (0.9%).

When it comes to the total value of auction sales in the past year, London homes top the table with a total value of £794.5 million.

South East sales have totalled £554.6 million while homes under the hammer in the North West have a combined value of £308.9 million.

Moverly co-founder Ed Molyneux said, “In cooling market conditions, many sellers are struggling to find and secure good buyers. Rather than playing the waiting game while property values continue to stutter, an increasing number are heading to the auction room, accepting the marginal hit on the sale price in return for a quick and certain transaction.

At the same time, while UK house prices are indeed cooling, they’re still relatively high after the past few years of incredible market boom. And so we’re also seeing a good number of everyday buyers heading to auction, too, aware that they might be able to scoop up an affordable bargain at an expensive time.

And we mustn’t ignore the influence of online auctions – they have somewhat democratised the property auction process enabling normal homebuyers to feel more confident in what was, for a long time, a challenging and intimidating environment for inexperienced auction-goers.”