Auctions data specialist Essential Information Group is about to add online and conditional auction lots to its listings, in a move that mirrors the changing shape of the UK market.
The data will also be fed into its six-monthly auctioneer league tables.
Managing director David Sandeman said: “We will start to list all online auction catalogues on the proviso that the auctioneer is happy to give us the results – good or bad.”
Conditional lots, which are more prevalent in online sales than in-room sales, will also be listed. The focus will be on UK auctions, but with the potential to grow outside that – particularly given the success of online auctions in Ireland, led by BidX1.
“We hope to go live this month,” Sandeman said. “All lots will be classified as in-room or online and conditional or unconditional.”
Sandeman added: “The market has changed. Ten to 12 years ago, every sale was binding on the fall of the hammer and contracts signed and exchanged in the room. Then conditional sales started to come in and then online sales.
“In-room auctions will be here as long as people want them. They’re great. But if vendors want to sell online, why not have both?”
EIG provides an online auctions platform to a growing number of firms, including Allsop and Lambert Smith Hampton, with 120 online lots currently being offered by 22 auctioneers using its technology.
Fifty firms have been set up to use the EIG platform. Sandeman said the data portal’s listings would also include firms which have developed their own platform, such as IAM Sold and Pattinson.
Online auction raises €1.15m
REA, an affiliation of over 55 estate agents in Ireland, held its first multi-lot online auction using EIG’s platform last month.
The 16 lots offered were from a receiver who is using online auctions to sell hundreds of assets.
Fifteen sold, raising over €1.15M. The average rise over the AMV (guide price) was 62% with one lot, a plot of land, exceeding it by 333%.
The highest price achieved on the day was €195,000 for a mews house in Cork. A total of 432 bids were placed.
“Ireland still has a big backlog of distressed property to deal with,” said EIG MD David Sandeman.
He added that the republic’s lack of an established in-room auction market meant there was a huge opportunity to grow online auctions, with BidX1 leading the market.
REA Director Michael O’Donoghue said: ”The primary purpose of the online auction platform is to reduce the time taken to sell the average property from months to weeks”.
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