Bamboo Auctions has surpassed £1 billion in sales transacted through its digital platform, as estate agents increasingly turn to auction models in response to growing pressure on fees, competition and sluggish completion times.
Founded in 2016 by Robin Rathore, the Bristol-based proptech firm provides white-labelled auction technology to estate agents, enabling them to run and control their own online property auctions.
To date, over 1,200 estate agency branches across the country have adopted the platform, using it to sell more than 5,600 properties.
The firm’s milestone comes amid rising demand for speed and certainty in the UK property market.
FASTER SALES
Bamboo’s platform allows agents to list properties, upload legal documentation, and facilitate compliance checks and bidding entirely online.
Sales complete with contracts exchanged immediately after the auction, provided the reserve is met, with full completion typically within five to six weeks – significantly faster than traditional private treaty sales.
PRACTICAL ALTERNATIVE
“With average property transactions now taking over four months to complete, online auctions are increasingly viewed as a practical alternative by agents and sellers alike,” one industry analyst told Property Soup.
“Platforms like Bamboo’s are bringing transparency and efficiency to what has long been an opaque and frustrating process.”
Bamboo reports nearly 100,000 users on its platform, with the largest share of bidders aged between 40 and 59, a demographic increasingly comfortable with digital transactions and attracted to the certainty that auctions offer.
HELPING AGENTS
Robin Rathore, Chief Executive and Founder, says: “At the heart of everything we do at Bamboo is a desire to help agents sell more properties. We’re incredibly proud of this milestone and grateful for all the support and trust that our partners have put in us to enable us to reach this point.
“To sell £1bn worth of property is no mean feat and it’s also a real testament to the hard work that the team at Bamboo have put in to achieving this.
“Almost weekly, we read about the struggles that estate agents face; longer transaction times, increasing supplier fees and pressure to compete on commissions.
“It’s not right that agents face these challenges, whilst at the same time often being the piñata of the property industry. Bamboo is a real supporter of estate agents – from day one, we have aligned our revenue model with that of the agent – we make our money when agents make their money. Our tech is built from agent feedback and we’re here to go above and beyond with everything we do.
VIABLE SALES
And he adds: “In the current property market online auctions are offering both agent and vendor a viable way to sell properties with more speed, certainty and transparency and we continue to see a growing demand from agents who are realising the benefits this can offer in enabling them to stay competitive in the market.”
