e-Bay style auction business IAM Sold has said it is seeing higher-value properties entering its system via the estate agents which white-label its services.

Managing director Jamie Cooke said that last year, the business saw a 55% uplift in the average value of properties and a 33% uplift in sales.

Cooke is anticipating a new surge in business this year.

He said: “We anticipate major growth in the sector and appetite for agents to embrace auctions as part of their strategy for winning business in 2017 – a continuation of a trend we’ve seen since IAM Sold was established in 2009.

“With new entrants disrupting the traditional estate agency model, a wealth of different online offers and platforms, an explosion in prop-tech solutions and competition among high street agents fiercer than ever, more agents are adopting a hybrid solution to stay ahead of the chasing pack, and for many, being able to offer clients the option of going to auction to sell their property is just one part of this.

“As agents continue to build auction into their marketing package, we are also starting to see a major shift in public perception.

“Our stats from last year show a significant proportion of consumers turning to auction to buy property for their own use with almost a direct split between cash and mortgaged purchases – 43% of buyers bought for owner occupation while 47% purchased for buy-to-let purposes, and 10% bought to re-sell.

“This is very different to a few years ago, when auctions were almost solely the preserve of cash buyers – typically larger investors and portfolio landlords. Of the owner occupation purchasers, 48% utilised traditional mortgage funded finance with 52% using cash.

“Many people suggest the sales market overall will contract in the first half of 2017, therefore providing further incentive for agents to offer a full range of options to clients in order to win new business.

“This will be critical for those agents who hope to not just survive but prosper if the market reduces in terms of transactional volume. We also expect 2017 will see IAM Sold continue to engage with higher value properties.”

IAM Sold offers modern style auctions – where deals are not binding on the fall of the gavel and where sales may be conducted online – plus other models which are white-labelled by agents, some of whom choose to charge the buyer rather than the seller.