Estate agency group Countrywide is to stop holding its own London residential auctions and instead refer business to Auction House London.
Countrywide Property Auctions has cancelled its 14 February sale and placed 12 lots in the AHL catalogue for its 22 February sale at the London Marriott Hotel Regents Park, NW3.
The 137-lot catalogue is AHL’s largest to date. The firm has taken on two staff, including one from Countrywide, since signing the deal last month.
Countrywide Property Auctions’ London office will close and the group will use AHL as its route to market for any auction stock that does not go into its Liverpool, Exeter, Sheffield, and South Wales sales.
Countrywide said: “As a result of the collaboration with AHL there was no longer a requirement for a London office. However, a regional hub was opened to service clients from Sheffield and Exeter.”
Countrywide’s last London sale, on 8 December, raised £10.5m off an 84% success rate.
AHL wants to capitalise on links with Countrywide’s 1,200 branches, which operate under 55 brands including Bairstow Eves and Gascoigne-Pees.
“It is exciting for us that we are opened up to their branches throughout the UK. It is also a gateway to a lot of corporate clients,” said AHL director and auctioneer Andrew Binstock.
He added: “I am getting calls from various Countrywide branches. We are finding ourselves with a supply chain of lots.”
Countrywide put commercial agent Lambert Smith Hampton up for sale in December to raise cash and focus on its core residential estate agency business, which has been hit by uncertainty caused by the EU referendum and changes in stamp duty.
However, total group income for 2016 was better than expected at £737m, compared with £734m in 2015.
