Auctions were once the preserve of developers and receivers, buy-to-let landlords and ballrooms. However, difficult market conditions mean that increasing numbers of people are selling properties in this way.
Research by Hamptons into the auction market reveals some interesting trends. In the first instance, a disproportionate share of homes going into an auction have been bought and sold relatively quickly, with 3.3% of homes sold at auction owned for less than a year. Of the whole market, only 1.0% of all homes are sold on again after less than 12 months. Similarly, 4.9% of properties sold at auction have been owned for a year, more than double the proportion of all homes sold after this time (2.3%).
This typically reflects many small investors and “flippers”, who are buying homes at prices they believe are below market values to sell them on quickly without doing any work to improve the properties.
While flippers have always been a strong force in the auction market, there’s a newer trend discernible in the length of ownership data, with a second spike in the proportion of homes sold at auction after six to nine years of ownership. This increase in auction sales isn’t seen in the wider market and peaks at 7.4% of homes sold at auction after seven years – likely reflecting homes bought pre-pandemic at lower interest rates, before mortgages became more expensive as interest rates have risen.
Lower-value properties are much more likely to be sold at auction, with the average value of a home that went under the hammer last year coming in at £169,204, around half the £344,726 average value of all homes sold in 2025.
Homes sold at auction have typically appreciated in value much more slowly too – auction properties last year had seen an average 47% uplift in value, compared to the typical 76% uplift for all homes.
Auction properties are also much more likely to be sold at a loss, with 39.1% of auction properties that changed hands in 2025 sold for less than the purchase price, compared to 6.9% for all homes. While 33.0% of auctioned-off semis made a loss last year, compared to only 3.5% of all semis, flats were the worst affected property type. In the wider market, flat owners suffered losses, with 19.8% of flats selling for less than the purchase price last year, but at auction, this proportion soared to 57.4%. In part, this was likely caused by more landlords selling flats in advance of the Renters’ Rights Act coming into force.
Ultimately, these figures reflect both the shorter length of ownership and especially the profile of stock that tends to be put up for auction. These are often homes that have struggled to sell on the open market, or are distressed properties that may be un-mortgageable and in particularly poor states of repair. This is also reflected in the sales values being achieved.
Anecdotally, while distressed sellers who can no longer afford their mortgage payments are coming to auction, there is an increase in owners – especially those with apartments – who have tried to sell conventionally through an estate agent and seen the sale collapse once or perhaps even twice. With sales now taking an average of four to six months or more to go through, auctions are seen as a fast and easy way to secure a sale.
Once a seller instructs an auction house to sell their property, a legal pack is prepared, usually including title documents, searches, lease details if the home is leasehold and any special conditions of sale. Interested buyers have an allocated window of time in which to view the property before the day of the auction, when bidding happens in person, over the phone or – as is increasingly the case since Covid – online. Once the hammer falls, the highest bid above the reserve price wins and the bidder pays an immediate deposit, usually 10%. The sale is now legally binding and completion is usually within 28 days.
