Auction House London held their second-ever live-stream auction during the lockdown last week (Wednesday 6 May), and delivered an 84% success rate.
The sale carried one property that attracted the highest number of registered bidders for a single lot that Auctioneer Andrew Binstock has ever seen.
49 lots were sold from the 58 offered on the day, with bidding taking place online, by phone or by proxy, raising a total of almost £10m (£9,946,750).
But it was the very first lot – a one-bedroom, ground floor flat in Redhill, Surrey – which became the story of the sale.
Andrew Binstock said:
“There were astonishing and unprecedented levels of interest for Lot 1.
“We had 39 registered bidders who had each paid money in advance in order to bid on that property.
“We had originally guided it at £80,000, but bidding was fast and furious and wasn’t long before I was able to hammer it down at more than twice that price, for £190,500.
“I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed 39 different people registering to bid on one lot ever since my career began two decades ago – let alone where they were required to pay up front – so that was quite staggering.
“I seriously wonder whether it’s something I will ever see happen again.”
Auction House London was the first in the Auction House UK group to hold a sale via live-stream bidding on 25 March, just after the lockdown started.
Binstock said:
“It’s certainly an unusual experience, auctioneering in front of a TV camera, with only the company of a couple of other members of the team, co-ordinating the bids in the room.
“But after the success of our first live-stream auction, we had no qualms about staging one again.
“And even with the slight easing of the restrictions announced by the Prime Minister last night, there’s still a ban on public gatherings.
“So we’re happy to announce that our next auction will be held via live-stream too.”
Auction results held up again, so well done there!
However, I’m not sure about being so proud for Lot 1 exceeding twice the published guide? Should they not be more embarrassed about marketing with a woefully low figure ?
There’s a responsibility for being realistic and this doesn’t look a tough one… a two minute comparables search would have probably helped!
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Possibly, but who’s to say they would have achieved this price for the client if they had started at a higher price? Surely the important figure is the sale price not the asking price?
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I feel that the guide price needs to be at least a little realistic, otherwise it’s not worth including and may even devalue the auctioneers reputation. It also wastes time and effort for those buyers who think they may be in with a chance at that low level, when the reality is that is out of their grasp. I’m sure if you marketed a property for half its value you’d get lots of excited enquires… but I hope you wouldn’t then claim to be a great marketeer as a result…
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