There's more to auction success than clearance rates

There’s a lot of doom and gloom in the media about the property market at the moment. We keep hearing that auction clearance rates are down, and this is being used as evidence that the auction process is failing.
 
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
 
Think about a football game. Sure, victory on the scoreboard is always the number one goal, but how often do we hear coaches and commentators highlight statistical victories even in a losing side?
 
The same can be said for the auction process. It’s time that we separate the process from the outcome, when determining the success or failure of an auction. It’s not where you start, but where you finish, and auction day is an important part of the process.
 
What if we consider some alternative statistics as a measure of success? For example:

• The number of bidders competing

• Opening bid versus highest bid before passing-in

• The number of new buyers and leads generated by the agency team on auction day

• The number of sales being completed within 7-14 days post auction

• The variation between pass-in bid and final sale price 

It’s time we looked deeper into the auction process and gave an account of the broader picture, rather than the narrow one the media chooses to represent.
 
At The Auction Company we know through experience that in both the residential and commercial markets bidder numbers are high, competition is strong, and there are definitely buyers in the market.

So while auction clearance rates may be down, agency teams and vendors should look at what other victories can be drawn from the auction process and be confident that it still has a significant role to play, even if a property isn’t sold under the hammer.