Acuitus bounds ahead of Savills in auction league table

Commercial auction house Acuitus jumped to third place in the auctioneer league table, overtaking Savills’ residential auction business for the first time.

With commercial investments becoming more attractive to private investors, Acuitus posted a 23.4% rise in total sales, from £286.7m in 2015 to £353.8m last year. Its share of the total auctions market grew from 6.4% to 7.5%, according to Essential Information Group figures.

Allsop Commercial, which held on to the top spot, turned in a 35.7% increase in sales, from £449.8m in 2015 to £610.2m last year. Its market share rose from 10% to 13%.

By contrast, the tougher climate for residential saw Savills suffer a 20.3% drop in sales from £426.8m in 2015 to £339.9m last year. Its share of the total auctions market
fell from 9.5% in 2015 to 7.2%. However, its average success rate for the year was high, at 78.8%.

Allsop Residential, which held on to the second spot, reported a 3% dip in sales, from £445m to £431.9m, while its market share decreased slightly from 9.9% to 9.2%.

This is the second year running that Acuitus has moved up the table, having overtaken Barnard Marcus in 2015 to take 4th place.

TOP 12 AUCTION HOUSES BY AMOUNT RAISED 2016

Rank (2015)	Auction house	R or C	Total	Lots offered	Lots sold	Success rate
1 (1)	Allsop Commercial	C	£610,278,020	1106	970	87.7%
2 (2)	Allsop Residential	R	£431,882,660	1573	1,222	77.7%
3 (4)	Acuitus	C	£353,759,500	551	478	86.8%
4 (3)	Savills (London – National)	R	£339,946,730	1394	1,098	78.8%
5 (5)	Barnard Marcus	R	£253,008,160	1830	1,331	72.7%
6 (7)	IAM Sold (All)	R	£186,813,091	2740	2,013	73.5%
7 (6)	Clive Emson (All)	R	£158,000,319	1127	933	82.8%
8 (8)	Auction House London	R	£110,260,590	552	447	81.0%
9 (9)	Andrews & Robertson	R	£107,787,400	507	411	81.1%
10 (13)	Countrywide Property Auctions	R	£95,402,499	665	520	78.2%
11 (10)	McHugh & Co	R	£85,432,200	305	254	83.3%
12 (15)	Pugh & Company	C	£80,991,439	1137	918	80.7

PROPERTY’S POINT OF VIEW

Acuitus chairman and auctioneer Richard Auterac said the commercial market had been slower than residential to recover from the financial crisis, but was now strong. “Last spring residential started to go down, exacerbated by the referendum in June. The commercial sector hasn’t really seen that,” he said.

Allsop auctioneer Duncan Moir agreed that the commercial sector had some advantages over residential in a time of uncertainty. “Investors are coming from buy-to-let into commercial because it is quite a bit more attractive,” he said.

Chris Coleman Smith, Savills’ head of auctions, said: “Brexit brought the [residential] market forward to where it was going to go. We have a cracking catalogue for our February auction, and hopefully we will start the year with a bang.”

AUCTION MARKET ANALYSIS 2016

The residential and commercial auctions market grew by more than 3% to £4.7bn last year, despite the tougher climate producing a lower overall success rate than in 2015.

Last year, 76% of lots offered were sold, according to EIG. This was down from 78% the previous year, when the total raised by both markets combined was £4.5bn.

With larger lot sizes coming to auction, the commercial market recorded the biggest jump in the total raised, rising by 9% from £1.3bn to £1.5bn. The overall commercial success rate dipped only slightly, from 80% to 79%.

The tougher residential market held sales to a rise of only 0.9%, from £3.1bn to £3.2bn. The number of lots offered rose by 4% to 28,000 but the number sold stayed broadly the same at just under 21,000. The overall residential success rate was 75%, down from 78% in 2015.

Savills’ head of auctions Chris Coleman Smith noted more caution in the second half after the EU referendum. “We started with 80-90% [success rates] and then it was 75-80%, which is a true reflection of the market.

“There will be less caution this year, and more properties priced from £1m to £3m,” he said.