The first half of the year has been a bit of a mixed bag for the auction houses, most of which are starting to post improved results after a slow period partly attributed to May’s general election.
The most recent Essential Information Group figures showed June sales rose to an impressive £326.9m – the highest volume recorded in that month since 2007.
But the numbers only tell you so much. After an uncertain six months for the sector, it was a good opportunity to see what was happening on the ground, so off I headed to Clive Emson’s 23 July sale in Maidstone, Kent.
It was a busy week for auction houses holding their final sales before the August slow-down, and Clive Emson’s event was no exception.
Empty seats were scarce in the warm, tented room at Kent County Show Ground, and bids were off to a strong start when the first lot of the day – a three-bedroom house in Belvedere – sold for 45% over its maximum guide price of £160,000.
Perhaps the most heartwarming moment of the day happened with only three of the 59 lots left to go. Two couples sitting on opposite sides of the room fought hard for a three-bedroom house in Sole Street, a village near Gravesend.
The semi-detached house sat on 0.4 acres and included a variety of outbuildings and a detached barn. Guided at £280,000 to £290,000, a quick succession of
determined bids drove the house’s sold price up to £472,000, leading to a shriek of joy and a lingering embrace in the successful party.
“It went for well over what we thought, but it’s our forever home,” the female half of the winning couple was later heard to exclaim. If only Homes under the Hammer had been there to capture the moment (the TV crew takes a break from auctions over the summer, Emson later explained).
It was the perfect example of the high emotion and drama found in the auction rooms that sales figures alone fail to capture.
Results are still important, of course, and total sales on the day were a respectable, but not particularly astounding, £6.5m. The success rate, at 82%, matched the May sale but was down on the more typical high 80-90% achieved by Clive Emson. Some larger lots failed to sell, including – to the surprise of some in the room – a substantial barn complex in Ashford.
The 0.7-acre site includes a Grade II listed barn and has permission for a restaurant/bar, coffee shop and eight shops arranged around a central courtyard. A mixed-use development may also be possible, subject to planning consent.
The opportunity to convert a pub in Dartford into two detached houses was also overlooked by bidders, who failed to hit the reserve for the property, guided at £450,000 to £460,000.
A lot that befell the same fate was a similarly priced building near Cranbrook, with two flats and a former bakery that could be converted into a cottage.
However, a shop with offices above it in Margate, was guided at £380,000 to £400,000 and sold for £530,000, with a gross yield of 7.27%.
Other popular lots included a 0.1-acre parcel of land in Sittingbourne, with a detached garage, which was sold for £49,000 against a guide price of £20,000 to £30,000.
These types of lots are “very difficult” to price, remarked Emson. This was again demonstrated when a half-acre plot in Deal, with development potential for one or two houses, went for £62,000 –around double its £30,000 to £35,000 guide price.
Other lots that had attendees shaking their heads in disbelief (or frustration) included a three-bedroom house in Gravesend, on a 0.4-acre plot. It came with a detached barn and potential for an extension, was guided at £280,000 to £290,000 and sold for £385,000.
Land including a double garage, gated compound and driveway in Snodland, was sold for £32,000 – more than three times the lower end of its £10,000 to £15,000 guide price.
Also noteworthy was a freehold building in Folkestone, with permission to convert the existing warehouses into two houses. Guided at £75,000 to £80,000, it eventually sold for £178,000.
The day encapsulated the highs and lows of the auction room; the surprise as a property’s market value (on that day) is revealed; the disappointment of
vendors whose investments performed under par; the chuckles generated by the auctioneers’ patter, and the solemn finality of the falling gavel.
