Roy Pugh was “disappointed” with his £1.4m auction in Preston last week when 69% of the lots sold.
“This for us is very, very disappointing,” he said. “We would expect it to start with an eight and would hope for a nine.”
There were two main problems, he said. One was difficulties over viewing access for a number of properties forfeited to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Another problem was unrealistic reserves on some of the houses.
“There does seem to be a problem in the north-east Lancashire area,” he said. “Otherwise we had some very good results and with 300 people in the room we feel we have outgrown our venue.”
Next year the firm will be holding its auctions at Manchester Airport.
Pugh said he was particularly pleased with the sale of two derelict cottages from the same vendor near Combourg in Brittany, which had been guided at £7,000-£10,000. They sold for £9,000 and £4,000 respectively.
“We had at least 10 people go over for viewings and although they sold for not much money, there was definitely interest there,” commented Pugh.
