Controversial Modern Method of Auction claims “cons...

The largest player in the Modern Method of Auction sector says there is growing consumer confidence in the way the system operates.

Iamsold says it’s sold over £400m worth of property sold for agents and their clients in the first half of 2021. In that period an average of 42 per cent of properties sold over their reserve price.

It also says it’s passed over a monthly average of £1.5m in fees to estate agent partners using the Iamsold system in the first half of this year.

The MMA system has in the past been criticised for issues regarding the transparency of fees and scale of charges falling on the buyer; one former estate agent has set up a website with the aim of assisting buyers who have grievances about the MMA system.

However, providers of MMA insist the sector is now more transparent and Jamie Cooke, managing director of iamsold, says: <any of our agents’ clients are proactively choosing the Modern Method of Auction – something which has been growing over time but has certainly accelerated in the last 12 months.

“The speed at which we can progress sales has proven extremely attractive to buyers and sellers, who are able to complete their sales within an average of 56 days. That, coupled with our 95 per cent success rate, shows that auction has a strong place in a booming property market.

“Consumer confidence and awareness of auction has boosted the number of total bids we’ve received this year to over 27,000, nearly three times as many in the same period last year and in 2019. This supports our agent network to feel confident when recommending auction to their clients, particularly in the current market.”