Introducing our April 21 Online Auction Sale
Welcome to this, our third two-day National Auction for 2021 and we are delighted to bring you another catalogue packed with opportunities within this Spring Sale.
It was of course a year ago that the world changed, the UK went into the first lockdown and our business, like all auctioneers and many other non-related industries had to radically reshape the way we do business overnight.
We were ready for online auctions but we never envisaged this to be a replacement of our Ballroom venue sales, more as a compliment to those sales and an additional service. Overnight we were therefore able to offer our auction sales as an online platform and went from our last venue based sale on 9th March 2020 to launching the April catalogue within 10 days and conducting our first online sale on 7th April.
The pace and acceptance of buying property online became the norm very quickly, more and more buyers and sellers engaged with the process so much so, that to keep up with the pace of demand we extended our schedule for all our auctions since then to be held over two days from and including our sale held on 19th and 20th May 2020.
So, we now have a full 12 months of running online sales and in that time have had a total of 22 days in which we have held auction sales, offered over 2,450 lots with a capital value of sales in this period exceeding £255 Million.
Just looking at these headline figures and that of the auction market overall, there is one theme that is abundantly clear. No matter what the challenge, no matter what the economic situation and in a crisis that faces the world, let alone the UK the one asset class that continued to perform throughout this pandemic is, the UK property market. If anything, prices have gone up in the last 12 months, certainly demand has, especially evident from all the activity data we have in our business. This all happening despite all the challenges of lock-down, solicitors offices being closed, travel restrictions and so many more Covid restrictions.
There are several factors that may well have driven this, yes, we had a stamp duty holiday, yes low interest rates continued and yes, almost all other forms of investment faltered and declined in value during this period. I believe the one main driving factor could be this, whilst for some, property is an investment or trading commodity but for the majority, whether they own or rent their property it is their home and maybe, with all of us having spent far more time at home than ever before, maybe our homes are something we treasure and appreciate much more than ever before.
So, as we slowly and hopefully irreversibly emerge from Covid, whether they are a commodity, pension investment or somewhere to live we will continue to value our homes just that little more. And when adversity hits, the like of which never seen before this pandemic, we will be safe in the knowledge that our investment in property whether it be a development project, speculative land or other acquisition, buy to let or similar investment or indeed somewhere to live is likely to be the safest and most resilient investment we will ever make.
I encourage you to consider this as you look through the lots in this catalogue and as always we are here to assist with your enquiries in the lead up to the auction.
For the moment, the sale continues to be online but we very much hope to see you at our auction venue (if that is the way you would like to bid) very soon.
Wishing you the very best of luck with your bidding.
