EasyProperty set to launch online property auctions

The property market is now full of online ‘disrupters’ claiming to be the next generation of estate agent but EasyProperty, backed by billionaire Stelios Haji-Ioannou, is taking its online battle to auctioneers too. The company, whose website shares the same orange branding as its airline stablemate, has revealed that it is to start selling property through online-only auctions this Spring. Nigel Lewis met EasyProperty’s CEO Rob Ellice to hear about the plans. “The technology will be ready to go in February and then we’ll start running up a book and get it in place and the first auctions will be this Spring,” says Rob (left). “I think the success of Ebay suggests that in order to have an auction, it doesn’t have to be in a room so we’ll be taking on the existing auctions houses – who aren’t too happy. Many of them, who I’ve known for years, have come back to me and said ‘hang on, what are you doing’?” Offering public online auctions that are easy to sell through and, he claims, much cheaper for both vendor and buyer, is a significant challenge to the traditional auction model. At the moment most non-professional home sellers and buyers…