Millennials and Gen Z make the move to auctions

The explosion of online auctions and competition in the sales market has seen a seismic change in the demographic of auction admirers.

auctions onlineAnalysis of online customer activity has revealed an incredible 441% increase in the amount of 18-24-year-olds interested in auctions.

Website figures from Auction House shows that whilst visitors in the 55-64-year-old age group has dropped by 19%, a much younger generation has been surfing online property sales.

As well as the late teens and early twenty-somethings, there has been a 42% increase in the number of 25-34-year-olds logging on.

Overall, the number of website users last report by Auction house was 2.4m compared to 1.6m in 2019, proving that auctions are now considered an almost mainstream way of buying property.  buying route.

The figures support this too, as the group sees an all-time record for the annual amount of money it has raised. Compared to the whole of pre-Covid 2019, money raised in 2021 jumped by over a third (37.9%) from £439,705,781 to over £600 million (£606,142,854) – an increase of £166.4m.

Commenting on the figures, Auction House Managing Director Jeremy Prior said: “Without doubt, the pandemic has created a seismic shift in how the market operates, with impacts which will probably last forever. Lockdowns and social distancing mean that we have had to focus on a mixture of livestream and online auctions, which itself has turbo-boosted involvement by a younger demographic.”

In December alone, Auction House offered 489 lots and sold 418 of them – a success rate of 85.5%, raising £69,145,075 in the process.

Jeremy (left) added: “Looking ahead to 2022, we fully expect the number of properties going under the hammer to rise, especially with the increase in distressed stock hitting the market because lenders will continue disposing of assets after an enforced interval, now that the courts have re-opened.

“This is likely to attract more buyers to the market – especially from a younger demographic who will reach out to auction because they want the transparency and certainty of the process and don’t want to be stuck in a chain, as is still regularly happening in the world of private treaty sales.

“Even as restrictions lift in the coming months, we think that now people have experienced the ease and comfort of buying property in a livestream or online auction, they will want to continue doing so from the comfort of the home or place of work.

“Considering all this – and with a new and improved website on the way later in the year – we have every expectation that for Auction House, 2022 is going to be another spectacular year!”

To understand how Auction House works with agents, listen to this podcast of Auction House UK’s Managing Director, Bryan Baxter, presenting at The NEG Talks at The Negotiator Conference 2021.


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