Recent months have seen huge growth at Auction House, with a marked increase in the value of sales made, and some of the group’s regional auctions entering their highest ever number of lots.

During November this year, Auction House offered 229 lots and sold 161 – at a steady success rate of 70.3%, with £18.8m raised. This compares with a sale value of £11.5m in November 2019 – a hike of 62% year on year.

Commenting on the figures, Auction House Founding Director Roger Lake said: “There’s no doubt that buoyancy has returned to the auction sector. A new urgency is now evident, as more private buyers seek to purchase with the benefits of the current stamp duty holiday.

“Bidding has been enthusiastic with strong prices being achieved on a wide variety of popular lots. The second lockdown certainly hasn’t held us back – in fact, we can safely say that it has been business as usual at Auction House. And we’re seeing that strong activity continuing into December.”

Roger Lake says that both sellers and buyers appreciate the speed of the auction process, attracted by the certainty of the sale and the fixed timeline it promises.

He explains: “We can deliver an exchange of contracts within three to six weeks, compared to the norm of three to six months with private treaty.

“Our Covid-secure procedures are working well in Tier 2 and Tier 3 areas, and our remote bidding systems are proving very effective and increasingly popular.

“Right now, there’s a rush to get property sold before the Christmas / New Year holiday. We have over 600 lots entered into our December auctions, which is on a par with last year’s figures.”

Since the start of 2020, the group has sold a massive 2,877 lots from 3,656 offered – more than any other property auctioneer in the UK – with a success rate of 78.7% and raising an impressive total of nearly £386m (£385,934,000).

Roger Lake added: “In the final quarter of the year, some of our regions – for example Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Coventry, Norwich and Milton Keynes - have offered the highest number of lots in their history. That means some of our biggest ever auctions have taken place in the year of Covid – which is an astonishing achievement!

“This also bodes well for the coming year. Those with surplus stock and others needing to sell should really be thinking about putting their properties into auction the first sales of 2021. This would mean they can take advantage of buyers wanting to purchase during the stamp duty holiday period, which is due to end on the 31st of March.”