Allsop is planning to hold more online auctions after selling 16 of 36 lots at the first internet sale for new-build homes.
Bidders competed over two days from 10 June for the second phase of flats being built in the West Drayton Waterside development in west London.
Allsop had billed the auction as a “revolutionary” way of selling new properties that was “set to change the landscape of off-plan and new-build purchasing across the globe”.
The sale attracted 450 people who registered to take part, and generated 16,000 web hits.
A total of 14 properties were sold on the day, with a further two sold at the time of going to press, raising £5m. The remaining flats are available at “buy it now” prices.
Allsop partner and residential auctioneer Gary Murphy said he was delighted with the result. “We have no doubt that this is the future of sales of new homes for certain developers,” he said.
The developer, Clearview Homes, achieved binding treaties and a higher price per square foot than it did for the first phase, which sold by private treaty.
Online auctions also provide a high degree of transparency and enable overseas investors to bid, Murphy said.
The one-, two- and three-bedroom leasehold flats had reserve prices starting from £249,000 and attracted mainly investors, with some owner-occupiers. All the buyers of the 16 properties were UK-based.
“Since the auction we have had a significant number of approaches from developers who now wish to discuss with us the online auction method as a way of marketing their own schemes,” said Murphy. All these involve new-build, off-plan homes, he added.
Mike Bussey, a private investor with a small property portfolio, bought a two-bedroom flat at the Waterside development while travelling in France. Online auctions avoid the usual “bun fights” involved with off-plan, new-build homes, and encourage greater discipline by bidders, he said.
“The danger is in an auction room you can get a bit carried away. Part of that is the peer pressure in the room, which I think auctioneers love, but buyers not necessarily.”
Barnett Marcus is also developing an online auctions platform. Divisional managing director Chris Glenn said this could help owners wishing to sell properties quickly, but would probably be used only in “exceptional circumstances”.
Not all potential buyers would be able to get their financial affairs in order quickly enough to buy at auction, he said, while others appreciated the “comfort” of speaking in person to auctioneers.
