Recently in Property auctions Category

Just a couple of advertisements this morning: London agents with their ear to the ground will know that the British Property Federation and Allsop are looking to move offices. But, just in case there is a stray landlord out there unaware of the requirement, here are the details. The BPF wants about 4,000 sq ft, north of the river and within lobbying distance of the Palace of Westminster. Allsop is looking for 15,000 sq ft a bit closer to the lights of Regent Street than their current home in Soho Square.

The reason for not simply telling both to go put an advert in EG, is that both the BPF chief executive Liz Peace and Allsop senior partner Neil MacKilligin came up with exactly the same answer when asked why move now - and not when their leases run out in 2010 and 2011. "Rents will be higher, incentives lower and far more tenants will be seeking space" was essentially the answer.

The BPF can call on some pretty fancy advice from members like Francis Salway, chief executive of Land Securities - who said don't delay. Allsop is Britain's leading auction house and so has its finger on the pulse. They seem even keener to move. London letting agents with their ear to the ground are presumably already mentioning to hesitating clients that well-informed occupiers are moving well before their lease break. A ploy that will no doubt increase the likelihood of the prediction coming true.

At 1pm on October 15^th Jones Lang LaSalle will open on-line bidding for 100 000 sq ft of office space owned by food giant Proctor and Gamble says Bloomberg. The room-sale auction community need not be too alarmed by this leap into cyberspace; well, not yet anyway. For the property is in Dayton, Ohio.  

But JLL say they will now offer an on-line commercial auction service at www.auction.com  a residential site owned by the Real Estate Disposition Corporation. Yes, those guys who blitzed Sky TV with vulgar advertising in an unsuccessful attempt to break into the sale room market in the UK. That was a complete disaster. No more sales of repossessed properties are scheduled in Britain.

Will this on-line commercial model be imported to the UK by REDC and JLL? Who knows, it seems unlikely, as JLL has a thriving traditional operation. But CBRE does not. And a report in the Wall Street Journal says JLL's bigger brother is developing on on-line auction site of its very own. 

There is much glee among the established auction houses that American newcomers, Real Estate Disposition Corporation, seem to be doing badly.

The business that claims to have sold more than US$3.8bn (£2.34bn) worth of repossessed homes in the States arrived in the UK in April to much hoopla, including relentless advertising on Sky.

Has the wheeze of offering owners a free service (the buyers pay a 10% premium) worked? Well, Allsop and Savills are currently selling about 75% all lots at auction. Establishment spies swear the American's success rate has been much lower.

The Americans are not saying. But they must be finding it little tough. Their latest auction is an entirely online affair with 109 lots.

Bidding opened, appropriately, on July 4th and closes in the 9th. Go see for yourself how it's going.