The latest data analysis from quick sale specialists Open Property Group reveals that selling a home through a quick sale platform achieves a price almost £67,000 above that achieved at auction.
Open Property Group has analysed England’s property auction market to provide insight into which regions see the most properties sold at auction and how much money they’re selling for compared to their open market value. The research then goes on to compare these auction prices to those achieved when selling through a quick sale platform.
Property auctions are becoming increasingly popular in England due in no small part to the fact that they provide a fast and relatively reliable route to sale for vendors who don’t have the time to wait around on England’s notoriously sluggish property market.
Open Property Group’s research reveals that there are currently 18.964 live auction listings in England.
The largest proportion of these listings are located in the South East (17.8%), followed by the North West (15.5%), West Midlands (12.9%), and South West (10.9%).
The fewest auction properties are available in London with the capital accounting for just 2.9% of the national whole.
UNPREDICTABLE
While auctions can provide a fast sale for a property that might struggle to gain attention on the open market, auctions are also highly unpredictable. For example, while it’s well understood that a property will sell for less money than it would on the open market, there is no way of knowing exactly how much less until the hammer comes down.
In fact, according to data taken from the last quarter of 2023, the average auction property sells for just 58% of its open market value.
This is calculated by taking Q4 2023’s average house price of £299,344, and measuring it against the average price achieved at auction which was just £172,719.
While lots of sellers are turning to auctions, others are realising that a better route to a fast, reliable sale is a quick sale platform.
Quick sale platforms will buy almost any property and will pay, on average, 80% of its open market value.
This means quick sale platform sellers get an additional 38.7% of their home’s market value compared to those who sell at auction. This is an average cash difference of nearly £67,000.
In some regions of England, quick sale sellers are seeing even bigger benefits.
For example, in the North East, quick sale platforms prices outperform auction prices by 76.4%.
In the South East, quick sale platforms provide an additional 58% in value which, due to the region’s high house prices, is equivalent to a cash increase of more than £98,000 compared to the average price achieved at auction.
ALTERNATIVE AVENUE
Jason Harris-Cohen, Open Property GroupThis strong price performance from quick sale platforms is mirrored across all English regions except one.
The only place where sellers might be better off going to auction than a quick sale platform is London. The capital’s average quick sale price of £410,885 is -14.2% below the average price achieved at auction which stands at £478,814.
Jason Harris-Cohen, Chief Executive of Open Property Group, says: “Property auctions have long provided an alternative avenue to selling for those who don’t want the hassle and delays of selling on the open market.
“But auctions are highly risky and unpredictable which means sellers can end up receiving such a disappointing price for their property that they might wish they’d never gone to auction at all.
“That’s why more and more sellers are turning to quick sale platforms. They provide a far more transparent and reliable alternative to auctions.
“Sellers can receive an offer and then choose whether or not to accept it. And because the average offer comes in at 80% of market value, the majority of people do accept it and enjoy the great benefits of an incredibly quick sale, freeing them up to instantly move on to their onward purchase. “
