What's the latest auction situation?

Whether you are a buyer, seller or investor, it’s worth keeping tabs on what’s happening in the auction world to see if there are any opportunities to buy a property at a bargain or secure a wreck that you can do up and profit from or just enjoy as your new home.

The year went out on a high for the auctions industry, with number of lots sold and amount being raised beating December records for many years.

National Auction Trends

According to the latest report from EI Group, which monitors auction activity across the country, at 100 auctions held around the UK, there were:

• 3,745 lots offered – an increase of 12.3% on last December’s 3,336;
• Of which 2,830 were sold, representing a year-on-year increase of 9%;
• This beats the previous records of 2,675 lots sold in December 2007;
• The amount raised was up by 5% to £537m – the highest raised in December for 10 years.

Residential auction figures are interesting:

• Lots offered were up 11.7% to 3,030;
• Lots sold were up 8.6% to 2,083;
• The percentage of lots sold (74.7%) and the total raised (£320m) were down slightly on the previous year, by -2.7% and -3.4% respectively.

For more information on buying property auction read our checklist from EI Group: Buying at Auction

Regional Auction Trends

Looking at EI Group’s regional figures, the number of residential lots sold in December is down on 2015 in nine out of 13 regions analysed.

The biggest drop was seen in the East Midlands, with a fall of -11.4% YoY, while the West Midlands saw the smallest drop, with -2.7%.

The four areas where residential lots were up on last year were:

• East Anglia: 20.1%
• Northern Ireland: 10.3%
• Yorkshire and The Humber: 6.8%
• North-East: 2%

By far the biggest amount raised was, unsurprisingly, in the capital, where residential lots raised £223m from 732 lots in December, a fall of -14.8% on last year’s £261m. At the other end of the scale, the whole of Scotland raised just £7m from 190 residential lots.

For more information on buying property auction read our checklist from EI Group: Buying at Auction.