Welcome to our 320 Lot Autumn Auction Sale
The sale will commence at 9:30am and with this being a venue based auction, our sales remain the only major national auction where you can attend the sale, bid in person and experience the excitement of an auction first hand!
In fact, even if you just want to come along and experience a real auction for yourself, you are very welcome to attend, it is very much “open house” and my team will be on hand to answer any questions you may have and guide you through the auction process regardless of whether you are bidding or have just come along to see what happens at an auction sale.
Of course, if you want to bid and can’t attend you can still bid online but please start your registration process nice and early, don’t leave it to the last moment as, due to anti-money laundering regulations, there is a lot we need to cover before we can authorise you to bid. You can also bid over the telephone or by proxy but again, your application needs to be completed well in advance of the sale and in reality and proven by those who are successful on the day, bidding in-person is always the best way to buy.
Regular readers of our catalogues will remember that last month I reflected on the industry and market since I started at Barnard Marcus Auctions 35 years ago. Today the market is very different and since last month, a lot has happened that suggests now could be an even better time to buy. Some real indicators of this which are reported but possibly not as prominently as they should be: mortgage rates, New Homes development, rental demand and rental inflation. All these factors suggest that house price inflation in the coming months is almost inevitable.
Mortgage rates are coming down despite no change this month in the Bank of England base rate. High Street lenders are having a “war” to get your business and almost as soon as one lender offers a new rate, another pops up with an even better rate. For example, Barclays recently launched a 5 year fixed rate deal at 3.71% interest rate undercutting the market beating deal previously available through Nationwide. All these lenders are forward planning on the prospect that the Bank of England will reduce rates so in many respects, you can get the rate today that would ordinarily become available following a rate cut by the BoE.
New Homes planning proposals are down 8% year on year. We know that demand for housing massively outstrips supply, a challenge in the UK for several years but, if less developments are now being proposed, there will be lower availability of stock downstream following building works and therefore, the most basic economic factor will come into play, high demand and low level of availability inevitably result in prices rising far quicker than they would otherwise do.
Rental demand is literally going through the roof! Statistics show that in some parts of the country, for each rental property listed there are over 50 enquiries from prospective tenants. These same figures show that demand from tenants is up 17% on pre-pandemic levels yet stock available to let is down 32% in the same period. Whilst it is true that some landlords are exiting the market, indications are that this is more due to profit taking and hedging a position on capital gains tax rather than any other reason or concerns about upcoming legislation and tenant rights. In fact, if one looks at this type of investment over the long term and, as a responsible landlord I do question whether there really is anything so profound in proposed legislation that would seriously impede a landlord staying or indeed, entering the property investment market.
Finally, there has been house price growth almost in every area of the country, but this has been, in my view, a little subdued in recent months. There are a number of factors, not only the summer but also, General Election and of course, everyone has been waiting for interest rates to settle. Given these factors are now largely behind us, I believe the retail Estate Agency market will see a return of buyers who want to move rather than those who have “got to move”. T his is generally a busy time of the year in terms of market activity and then it always receives a boost just after Christmas, in fact, Boxing Day is one of the busiest for user traffic on portals such as Rightmove.
So given all these factors, could a purchase on 15th October that you refurbish/develop and then look to sell give you a better profit margin than you might expect- I believe it will. Could a purchase on 15th October provide you with a better rental return and higher yielding investment than you might expect – I believe it will. And, if you delay buying now and look to purchase the same property type/location in the coming months will it cost you more than you would have to pay on 15th October – again, I believe it will.
With all this in mind, we look forward to welcoming you to the auction on Tuesday 15th October, we are here to help with all your enquiries in the lead up to the sale and as always, wish you the very best of luck with your bidding!
