Allsop has maintained its lead as the largest residential auction house, despite sales growth that trails that of its nearest rival, Savills.
Allsop’s seven auctions raised £445m last year – a 5.8% increase on 2014, while Savills boosted sales by 16.1%, raising £426.7m from eight auctions, a record result.
The two firms moved further ahead of their smaller competitors, increasing their combined market share from 23.3% to 24.8%, Essential Information Group data shows.
Barnard Marcus is still in the number three spot after posting a fall in sales of £18.2m, or 6.7%.
Although most of the positions are unchanged from last year, McHugh & Co dropped from fifth to eighth place after sales fell by 16.6%.
The Iam-sold group was included in the full-year table for the first time, owing to an editorial decision to treat it as one entity rather than a collection of individual offices and businesses. Harman Healy and Sutton Kersh have dropped out of the top 15.
Overall, £2.2bn was raised by the top 15 residential auction houses – 4% more than last year. The average success rate was 76.9%, up from 74.7%. The average lot size grew from £145,916 to £150,557.
Savills auctioneer Chris Coleman-Smith said his firm’s 86% average success rate showed “the power of our auction rooms and the quality of the stock offered”.
He added: “We sold the most properties within the M25 of any auctioneer by a fair margin. I think the coverage the Savills auction brand is able to command on a local, national and international scale is unmatched and attracts both sellers and buyers from far and wide.”
McHugh & Co auctioneer James McHugh said: “We are very pleased with our high success rate, which remained constant over the year, and look forward to a positive 2016.”
Chris Glenn, managing director for Sequence, the estate agency group that includes Barnard Marcus, said that 2014’s results had been helped by one large portfolio transaction and would always have been a “challenge to beat”.
