North East firm partners with Zoopla to boost property sales by auction

The property marketplace, Zoopla, has teamed up with a Newcastle firm on an industry-first that will allow estate agents to expand their services and commercial opportunities.

Newcastle-based iamsold is the UK’s largest property auctioneer and the Zoopla partnership will help agents sell more properties via the modern method of auction.

It will also educate homeowners about the benefits of buying and selling properties at auction for speed, security and transparency.

Currently, only 2 per cent of property transactions in the UK are completed via auction, even though auctions enjoy high completion rates when compared to traditional sales, 25 per cent of which fall through.

This costs an estimated £400 million in fees and jeopardises millions of pounds in agent commission.

The modern method of auction, where the whole process is completed online, offers a range of benefits for agents and homeowners.

Buyers and sellers are pre-vetted to ensure a higher completion rate of 95 per cent on sales agreed compared to 75 per cent for traditional sales.

Fixed timescales are also outlined to deliver faster purchases, with average completion taking just 56 days.

Andrew Marshall, Zoopla’s chief commercial officer, said: “Our mission at Zoopla is to be the agents’ champion and by partnering with iamsold we believe we are doing just that.

“Our research shows property auctions are misunderstood by many agents and consumers alike but we are confident that in iamsold we have a partner that can help us bring auctions to a whole new generation of homebuyers who might have only ever seen them on TV.

“The benefits of selling at auction for agents are clear. Faster sales, higher completion rates leading to an increased rate of return.

“It’s also a great way to bring to the fore properties that might have previously struggled to get the attention they deserve.

“We firmly believe that all of this, combined with Zoopla’s reach and recognition, will be a winning combination for agents in the months and years ahead.”

Jamie Cooke, managing director of iamsold, added: “We founded iamsold to offer an effective solution for vendors needing to buy or sell properties quickly and securely, and during the last 10 years have grown a strong network of over 2500 estate agent branches.

“The future of auction is online which is something we have pioneered, so it’s incredible to see this recognised by Zoopla as they expand into this territory with our partnership.

“Millions of homeowners visit Zoopla each week and with this partnership we hope to make auction a mainstream way of moving and arm more agents with this solution to go to their clients with.”