Private treaty sales have dominated the UK housing market so why are auctions gaining popularity?

The majority of property sold in the UK is sold by estate agents using a private treaty sale, but recently a growing number of sellers have been using auctions.

Auction House recently reported a 70% year-on-year increase in tenanted properties sold through its weekly online auctions in April, while the wider auction market has also been growing. EIG figures show residential lots offered at auction increased 33.5% year-on-year in June, with the number actually sold rising 29.7%.

Property sold at auction typically achieves a lower sales price than property sold on the high street, so why are more and more landlords turning to auction?

One reason is that a lot of auctions have changed. Auctions are no longer only open to cash buyers who can complete in 28 days and set aside a day to attend. Most are now online and have longer bidding windows, so seller returns are better. Some also allow 56 days to complete, meaning they are open to people who need to arrange a mortgage.

The bigger pool of buyers and more bidder-friendly options mean auctions do not carry the same equity costs as they did in the past.

Another reason auctions are popular is the speed, control and certainty they offer sellers. If a seller doesn’t want to – or can’t – wait 9–12 months to find a buyer and exchange contracts before they know the buyer isn’t going to pull out at the last moment, auctions give sellers peace of mind.

They’re fast. They’re certain. Buyers are legally committed from the start.

They’re also particularly useful for properties that don’t fit neatly into the conventional estate agency market – including properties being sold with tenants in situ.

More and more landlords are choosing the trade-off of selling for less than vacant-possession value rather than paying all the costs to gain vacant possession and prepare the property for sale. They don’t want to risk being left holding an empty property or having to relet while other landlords are also exiting the PRS.

They don’t see the equity they give up as a loss. They see it as the cost of surety. It is the light at the end of the tunnel.

A landlord with a cooperative tenant and a well-performing property may simply want to release their equity quickly.

A person who never planned or wanted to become a landlord but can’t afford to run an empty inherited property indefinitely and doesn’t want to relet can choose to exit the PRS.

Older landlords can plan their retirement.

Another may be trying to stop arrears, legal costs or management problems continuing indefinitely and/or minimise the risk of getting into a dispute with tenants trying to protect their own security.

The trade-off is well understood: they’re exchanging some of the property’s potential value to avoid months of prolonged worry and uncertainty. A simple answer to a complicated problem.

A clear route out of a difficult situation has economic value as well as emotional value.

If a property takes twelve months to sell, there are twelve more months of mortgage payments, maintenance and other costs to consider. If prices fall during that period, the higher price the seller was holding out for may disappear anyway.

Sometimes speed changes from a preference to a priority

There is another reason people use auctions. Things go wrong.

An estate agency sale falls through. A buyer reduces their offer. A tenant stops paying. A disagreement develops into a dispute. Access becomes difficult. Unexpected repairs appear or a financial deadline starts getting uncomfortably close.

A more reliable property sale can solve a multitude of problems, from stopping debt spiralling into repossession to removing a stressful situation from your life. But the more complicated a property becomes, the bigger the gap tends to get between its sales price and vacant-possession value.

Auction House itself says experienced investors can still buy some auction properties for as little as 60–70% of vacant-possession value.

That’s not anyone taking advantage of sellers who find themselves in a difficult situation – that’s buyers deciding what they’re prepared to pay for the property and the risk that comes with it.

However, there is a better way to sell property to solve problems – Landlord Sales Agency.

Landlord Sales Agency – Closing the gap between estate agents and auction sales

We help sellers who need to sell their properties as quickly as auctions for less equity.

And without the listing fees or commission auctions charge.

We sell property in 28 days or less. Our buyers are locked in from the start and they have to complete within 56 days of our notice.

We normally talk about how we help landlords sell their properties without having to evict their tenants, for the benefit of their tenants and to create a win-win-win solution.

90% of our business is doing just that. However, we also help landlords solve problems when the relationship they have with their tenant is the problem.

Tenants who won’t leave until the bailiffs arrive. Tenants who refuse to allow access or viewings. Tenants who have stopped communicating. In short, any type of tenant dispute.

Unlike auctions – or estate agents – we do everything possible to stop problems affecting the price buyers are willing to pay. We do it by solving the problem so the buyer doesn’t have to, and to stop them knocking 40% off the property’s value.

And problems with tenants aren’t the only things we solve. Haven’t got the cash to fund EPC improvements or repairs to a property in disrepair? We use some of the equity tied up in the property to find a solution that is better than selling at auction.

Many are repeat sellers who come back time and time again because our commitment to being the best we can has left a lasting impression and, put simply, they know they can trust us.

They value their time and energy more than chasing the highest price possible. They choose us because they trust us not to make false promises. We do what we say we will and they like having a company they can trust to get an important job done.

We don’t control property prices. Buyers do. What we can control, however, is how complicated a buyer perceives a sale to be.

Rather than let complications determine a property’s worth, we do more than other sales options to fix the problems and preserve the property’s value.

We can’t manufacture buyers or dictate what they’re prepared to pay, so of course price is one of the tools we use. But it is only one of them. The rest is old-fashioned hard work, specialist expertise and a network of people who can help us solve the problems that would otherwise give buyers a reason to offer less.

That’s what sellers are paying for. Not a magic wand, but the tools, expertise and work needed to get a difficult job done quickly while protecting as much of their equity as we can.

Whether you need or simply want to sell your property for the best price in 28 days or less, rather than hold out indefinitely for more, Landlord Sales Agency fills the gap between maximum certainty and maximum profit.

Put a property with a problem into an auction and buyers will generally decide what that problem is worth to them.

List it with an estate agent and you may have to spend a lot of time and money sorting out the problem yourself.

Give that property to us and we’ll do everything we can to minimise the problem’s effect on the price.

We have built a database of more than 30,000 active buyers, ranging from individual investors and cash buyers to companies looking for entire portfolios, alongside the buyers we reach through Rightmove, Zoopla and local agents. That means we can look for the buyer who sees the most value in your property rather than simply accepting the price the quickest buyer is prepared to pay.

We also collect the information investors actually want about the tenancy, work directly with tenants to maintain cooperation and access, help resolve problems that could reduce what buyers are prepared to pay and proactively manage the sale through to completion.

It’s why anyone and everyone who wants to sell rental property should talk to us first. If you’re considering an auction, you’d be mad not to.

It costs nothing, there’s no obligation to proceed and we will preserve as much of your equity as we can.

We will still use price to attract buyers and get the speed, certainty and control that make auctions so appealing – but with specialists actively working to preserve as much of the vacant-possession value as possible.

Contact us today to find out what we can do for you and how you can end 2026 the way you want 2027 to start.