Welcome to our first auction of 2019

Welcome to this, our first auction sale of 2019 and on behalf of the team here at Barnard Marcus Auctions we would all like to wish you a belated Happy New Year.

This year we will hold a full schedule of 10 auctions at our usual venue of the Grand Connaught Rooms with this venue being centrally located and giving everybody the opportunity to bid whether they can make it to the auction or wish to bid remotely.

Looking briefly back on 2018 it was clearly a year of turmoil with all the issues surrounding Brexit yet during this time interest rates remain low and with some adjustment in property values in certain geographic locations, property became yet again more affordable than ever before. The auction market in general remained very busy despite in fact three London auction houses ceasing trading and two moving to an online model only denying bidders the opportunity to see the competition in an auction room and requiring them to pay substantial sums of money before their bid was even successfully made.

As you will all be aware, Barnard Marcus continued to hold sales without interruption or cancellation and whilst the London residential auction market saw the volume of lots offered decrease by some 12%, the volumes of lots offered at our sales only decreased by 7%. In fact, the statistics available in early January show that not only did Barnard Marcus offer substantially more lots than any other London residential auctioneer, the market share of all lots offered by Barnard Marcus increased to 28.5%, our nearest competitors offering 22% and 16% market share respectively.

I believe this is a clear endorsement of the services that we offer to our client and the fact that our business is in tune with market conditions and able to react to demands of both buyers and sellers very quickly.

Of course as Brexit continues to deliver uncertainty at this time it does provide opportunities for buyers to compete in a market place where some are sitting on their hands and buy properties at today’s levels which I believe will substantially increase once we have a solution and a way forward following the Brexit debacle.

Turning to this catalogue you will find a huge array of stock with some premier London locations in the early part of the catalogue with more regional lots being offered in the later part of the catalogue. We have a selection of sellers from major plc. property companies through to local authorities, housing associations, executors and others who have priced their properties at a very keen level, demonstrating that they are in the market to sell their properties on 4th February.

With this New Year I would take the opportunity to remind all readers of the catalogue and bidders in the room that it is essential that you carry out all your due diligence before the auction and be a prudent buyer. Legal documents are available for you to download free of charge from this website and you must carry out all your due diligence prior to bidding in the room. In the auction room you are bidding to buy and under the fall of the gavel you become the legally binding purchaser having exchanged the contract. You will also need to pay your deposit in cleared funds on the day of the auction or provide a cheque, which must be replaced with a cleared funds transfer by 1pm the day following the auction.

With the continued short days we have squeezed as many viewings in as possible during daylight hours and our viewing staff have a schedule to follow so we would ask that you arrive promptly at viewings at the stated times.

We are here to assist with all your enquiries in the lead up to the auction so please give us a call to check anything upon which you are uncertain. We have a panel of solicitors available to act on behalf of buyers if your regular solicitors are unavailable or can’t act quickly enough and similarly, through the catalogue you will see the adverts from various financial services providers to facilitate your purchase if your regular route of funding is unavailable.

Finally, we look forward to welcoming you to the Grand Connaught Rooms on Monday 4th February and wish you the best of luck with your bidding.