This article applies to England and Wales.

The coronavirus lockdown has hammered the number of homes going to auction.

Although buyers have spent £100 million on homes, the number of properties going to auction dropped by more than 40% and money raised collapsed by nearly half.

The latest UK auction data from EIG Group shows that 775 out of 1,153 lots available in April were sold.

“April saw a number of auctions held and indeed a great deal of stock sold. The number of lots offered was down 43% and amount raised down 56%,” said EIG director David Sandeman.

“Against the backdrop of all the auction teams having to work from home, viewings virtually impossible or at the very least difficult, I feel the results are a credit to the industry.

“More importantly virtually every auction house now has at least one or two auctions behind them in the lockdown.

“The number lots offered and sold will gradually move up as committed vendors and buyers can trade in the open and practical property auction market using auctions that are either ‘live streamed’ from an auction room with all bids coming in remotely, or in a totally online auction environment.”

Homes sold at auction April 2020

Figures in brackets refer to comparative period last year

  April 2020 February 2020 to April 2020 May 2019 to April 2020
Lots Offered 1,153 (1,991) ▼ 42.1% 5,627 (6,915) ▼ 18.6% 23,214 (26,251) ▼ 11.6%
Lots Sold 775 (1,463) ▼ 47.0% 4,170 (5,170) ▼ 19.3% 17,433 (19,333) ▼ 9.8%
Percent Sold 67.2% (73.5%) ▼ 8.6% 74.1% (74.8%) ▼ 0.9% 75.1% (73.6%) ▲ 2.0%
Total Raised £99.4M (£194.1M) ▼ 48.8% £619.8M (£750.9M) ▼ 17.5% £2,518.5M (£2,857.2M) ▼ 11.9%

Source EIG Group