2017 Auction Review published

I am delighted to bring you this review of our auction business for 2017. As I prepared to write this back in November, we learned of a much welcome reduction of stamp duty costs for first time buyers for properties up to £300,000 and relief in high value areas such as London, for buyers of properties up to £500,000. I look forward to this stimulus bearing fruit during 2018. Indeed our December auction has already demonstrated an increased demand from buyers yielding us our best sales success rate on the day for the whole year.

We also seemed to have made significant headway in Brexit negotiations, so much of the uncertainty around the market during 2017 may be relieved in the forthcoming year. Nonetheless our success requires much effort and investment. Our team at Barnard Marcus is one of the most experienced available with the senior team alone bringing some 250 years industry experience.

Whilst 2017 may have traversed a more difficult time for the property market, I am delighted to report continued growth for our business on most metrics. Lots offered up 18% to 2,161, lots sold up 17% to 1,565 and the total value of property sold in our London Auctions stood at an impressive £258m. More significantly, our market share of lots offered has further risen this year. We now offer 27.1% of all lots offered by residential auctioneers in London. That is a staggering 610 more lots than our nearest rival!

As part of Sequence Auctions, which includes our regional brands located in Southampton, Norwich, Leeds and Derby, ours is truly a national business. As a group during 2017 we have offered some 3,040 properties and achieved total sales valued at £343m.

This year we have continued to expand our client base to include an increasing number of public bodies including local and regional council authorities together with substantial portfolio clients, private sellers and receivers who have benefited from our ethos of delivering excellent customer service and obtaining best price for our sellers. We continue to provide one of the widest spectra of property across most UK locations available under one roof.

Upon such strong foundations, I can look forward with confidence to the forthcoming year and eagerly anticipate the rewards of the very major investments we are currently making to our business to improve our customer experience at all levels. We have another full programme of 10 auctions planned for 2018 with our first sale planned for Monday 5th February. I look forward to seeing you at this, or at one of our later auctions soon and wish you every prosperity for the year ahead.