Auction sales last month saw a double-digit drop compared with May 2014, as vendors sat tight during the election period.
The total amount raised in May 2015 was £418.4m, an 11% drop from the year before, EIG figures reveal.
The amount of lots offered dropped year-on-year by more than a fifth to 2,590 in May 2015. The number of sold lots followed the same pattern, falling by 22% to 1,973.
EIG managing director David Sandeman said: “Numbers have dipped. This may well have been people sitting on the fence, waiting for the election result.”
Residential sales have driven the slow-down, with 25% fewer lots offered last month compared with May 2014.
This scarcity of stock is being felt elsewhere in the property market: the Halifax issued statistics two weeks ago suggesting the number of homes on the market was at a two-year low.
However, the proportion of lots sold is relatively unchanged, at 76%. “There’s a bigger demand than there is supply. That’s keeping the percentage sold up,” said Sandeman.
The number of commercial lots offered at auctions last month was 9% down on the same month last year.
Allsop auctioneer and partner Duncan Moir said the Tories’ general election victory could lead to a pick-up in sales over the next few months as “the perception is that they will be more business friendly”.
But there may be additional factors influencing the apparent decline in volume, he suggested. For example, “a lot of very substantial properties” came onto the market last year ahead of expected changes to permitted development rights.
The previous election does not appear to have had the same impact on auction sales, looking at EIG figures for 2010.
Figures for the main auctioneers suggest that the value raised and volume sold in the first half of 2015 differed little from the same period in 2014 (see p63).
