Industry News

Back to the room?

Publish Date: 24 March 2022

By Joe Connolly

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Further reading

Auction News - EIG Newsletter Jan 2019

Material information for property listings announced

Back to the room?

The beauty of auctions becoming more online is the ability auctioneers now have to hold online auctions at speed, without constricting the timelines of vendors, it opens up unlimited possibilities for auction houses. Some say it offers a less intimidating approach for vendors and opens up a lot more flexibility for auctioneers. And some auctioneers believe there is still a huge importance to leading the auction themselves whether that be in a room environment or live broadcast.

Here's what some of the UK’s leading auctioneers have to say:

Andrew Binstock - Auction House London:

“We are ‘carefully considering’ whether to return to live events but can’t see these taking place until next year. We use EIG online streaming software; I am still visible as the auctioneer & I can still very much guide the bidding. My job is to engage the audience and get them going, to get bidding wars started. You have to engage the audience otherwise nothing would happen; everyone would be very reluctant to ‘hit that BID button’ as they would raising their hand in an auction room.”

“My job is, of course, to get the best possible price, but it’s also to create an environment where people don’t want to lose. I have little tricks, little nudges, subliminal messages I can give with my body language to encourage people to bid I can still do this online via live stream.”

“We have had some of our highest sales figures during Covid and we’re seeing three to four times the number of people engaging with our auctions as we did when sales were held in the room, both in terms of registered bidders and others simply interested in watching and experiencing the excitement of the auction process.”

Andrew Brown - Strettons Auctions:

“We surveyed our clients to discover their preferred options on auction formats. While many would like a return to the room, others responded well to the move to remote sales. The survey showed that 68.5% of respondents preferred in-room bidding while 24.1% would choose the option of bidding over the internet. However, there were several signals that several buyers had enjoyed the convenience that remote auctions have afforded.”

“Many are anticipating that property auctions will move to a hybrid model, combining the benefits of an online auction with the traditional ballroom sale.”