How much does it cost to sell a property at auction? A guide for UK property owners. How much does it cost to sell a property at auction and how do the sale costs compare to an estate agency sale? Find out about the costs for selling your house or flat at auction and how to save money by passing some of your costs to the buyer.
How much are property auction fees?
Selling a property at auction costs less than most people think. The total cost is about the same you would expect to pay a traditional high street estate agent. There are 3 costs to consider when selling a property at auction:
- (1) COMMISSION - The auctioneers commission is around 2% to 3% + VAT of the final sale price and that's only paid when the property successfully sells.
- (2) ENTRY FEE - Most auctioneers request an upfront catalogue/entry fee of around £300 to £400 + VAT, but it may be possible to postpone payment until after the property has successfully sold.
- (3) AUCTION LEGAL PACK - The seller's solicitor is responsible for preparing the auction legal pack at the cost of £200 or more, which is payable before the auction.
It's worth knowing that the legal pack will not always mean an additional cost. If you have already been through a private treaty (estate agency) sale that fell through, your solicitor can often reuse the documents they prepared, so there may be little or nothing extra to pay.
Some auctioneers will also arrange the legal pack for you with no upfront payment, with the cost deducted or settled once the property successfully sells.
Timing is important too. Most auction selling costs only become payable after the property has sold, which can make the overall cost much easier to manage and budget for.
Passing your auction sale costs to the buyer
A key benefit of selling at auction is the complete control the seller has over the contract of sale, there's no input from the buyer. This means the seller can dictate terms like the completion date, responsibilities of the buyer after exchange and any extra costs to be paid by the buyer.
By adding a simple clause to the contract of sale it's possible to pass all (or part) of your auction costs and legal fees to the buyer, in fact it's standard practice for regular auction sellers (e.g. property traders, banks and local authorities). Some buyers will not bid as high for the property if they spot the clause in the legal pack, but others will not worry.
If you want to do this, let your solicitor know as early as possible. The clause should be included in the special conditions of sale and, ideally, be in place from the moment the legal pack goes live.
It can be added later if necessary, but it is good practice to have the special conditions settled before buyers begin reviewing the pack. Changes close to auction day can unsettle bidders, particularly if they have already worked out their maximum bid based on the original terms.
It is also worth checking with the auction company. Although this is common practice, some auctioneers may not allow it, so it is better to raise the point early rather than assume it will be accepted.
Negotiating sales commission with the auctioneer
The starting rate for an auctioneer's commission is typically 2% to 3% + VAT and that's only paid when the property successfully sells. So if a property sells for £200,000 the commission payable to the auctioneer at 2% would be £4,000 + VAT.
You can save money by passing costs to the buyer. And some auctioneers offer a no sale no fee service.
For higher value or particularly saleable properties the auctioneer might be prepared to reduce their commission, but there is a lot of organising and marketing that takes place for the auctioneer to be able to justify their fee.
Auctioneers usually charge a minimum selling fee of anything from £1,500 upwards, so if a low value property (such as a garage) sells for £10,000 the 2% commission rate will not apply, otherwise the fee would only be £200. Instead the auctioneer will charge the minimum selling fee.
TIP: Compared to some of the newer methods of selling, such as paying an online estate agent a fixed fee, selling a property at auction may seem relatively expensive. So it's worth a quick cost benefit analysis to see if auction will pay off for you.
How much does it cost to prepare the auction legal pack?
The auction legal pack is crucial for the successful sale of a property at auction, it contains all the legal information (e.g. land registry documents, deeds, searches, the Property Information Form (TA6), lease documents, tenancy agreements etc) relating to the property. So the more information there is in the legal pack the more confident prospective buyers will be when bidding on auction day. It's therefore important not to cut costs when preparing the legal pack as it may adversely affect the final sale price. Costs for preparing an auction legal pack for a freehold property can be anything from £200 upwards. For a leasehold property the cost of obtaining the management information pack from the freeholder/landlord will add another £200 or more.
Most of these legal costs are not unique to selling at auction. When selling through an estate agent or privately the seller will also need to prepare legal documents for the prospective buyer. It's only the searches (local authority search, water search etc) that are obtained by the buyer in the case of an estate agency sale, but by the seller in the case of an auction sale.
Who pays for the survey?
We're occasionally asked whether the seller needs to include a survey report for their property in the auction legal pack. The survey report is NOT the responsibility of seller. There is no expectation for a survey report to be included in the auction legal pack.
Many of the buyers at auction are cash buyers, so will not require a survey. However, if the buyer does require a survey, they will need to have sorted that out (and seen the report) before bid on auction day. With an unconditional auction sale, the buyer is bidding to buy - full stop! They're not bidding to buy subject to contract or survey.
Costs for selling a house by auction?
Request a free valuation and auction sale cost estimate for your property today. In some cases we may need a few more details about your property before providing a free and no-obligation auction sale estimate.
Free EstimateCosts for cancelling or withdrawing from auction
If you've booked your property into auction, but then have a change of plan, you may be liable to paying the auctioneers withdrawal fee if you decide to back out of the auction sale. Auction withdrawal fees vary, but can be as much as the full commission rate you would have been liable to pay if your property had successfully sold.
It's worth noting that if you signed the auctioneers' terms remotely (i.e. not in the auctioneers office) there will usually be a 14 day cooling off period. However, since the timescales for selling at auction are very quick, the auctioneer might ask you to tick a box on the auction contract that waives your right to cancel, in order for them to commence their service immediately, and begin marketing your property as soon as possible.
Other costs to consider when selling a property at auction
As with selling a property through an estate agent or privately, there are other costs to be considered when selling a property, they include; legal fees, moving costs and taxes that might be due. For example capital gains tax on buy-to-let properties and inheritance taxes for probate sale. Also consider whether any early redemption penalties might be due on your mortgage or secured loans. These are all payments your solicitor will be able to help you calculate when determining your bottom line sale price i.e. your reserve price.
If the property doesn't sell at auction there will usually not be any costs or obligations to the seller, unless stated in the auctioneers terms.
Are there any costs to pay if a property fails to sell at auction?
Just like selling through a traditional high street estate agent, the auctioneers commission works on a "no sale no fee basis". So the sales commission is only payable when the property is sold and contacts are exchanged, without that happening the auctioneer won't charge their fee. If a property fails to sell the only costs incurred by the seller would be their legal fees (for preparation of the auction legal pack) and any entry/catalogue fee that may have been paid before the auction.
A property that goes unsold at auction is treated differently from one that you withdraw beforehand. Withdrawing can sometimes trigger a separate fee, which may be as much as the commission you would have paid if the property had sold. By contrast, if the property simply fails to reach its reserve price, there is usually nothing further to pay.
Cost benefit analysis - is it worth selling at auction?
With so many low-cost online estate agents to choose from, does an auction sale provide value for money? Apart from the speed and reliability an auction sale offers, from a purely financial perspective, is it worth it? Can you achieve a higher sale price at auction compared to any other method of sale? The answer depends on the type of property being sold, some properties sell for considerably more at auction compared to estate agency sales due to two key features of auction; competition and transparency.
Competition
Property developers, amateur DIYer's and ambitious owner occupiers will compete to buy a property at auction in the knowledge they'll be able to refurbish it cost-effectively and either sell on for a profit or live there themselves. The key word being compete. In an auction environment, where the price can only go one way (up) it's the competitive bidding environment that drives the price up.
Transparency
In a closed/private sale environment, such as an estate agent sale (also known as a "private treaty" sale) the estate agent has a high level of influence over negotiations. If after a few months of marketing a property the estate agent tells the seller that £100,000 is a fair price, the seller will probably be inclined to accept an offer around that level. By keeping the property in the hands of one or two estate agents the sale lacks transparency.
In fact, a highly lucrative market exists for property traders who purchase problem properties through estate agents one week and flip them at auction the next week - the properties are sold for considerably higher prices as "properties with potential" in the transparent and competitive bidding environment that's found at public auction.
Ready for auction?
Request a free valuation and reserve price estimate for your property today. In some cases we may need a few more details about your property before providing a free and no-obligation auction sale estimate.
Free EstimateQuestions and Answers
Do properties sell for lower prices at auction?
Some types of property are particularly well suited to sale by auction; properties in need of modernisation or with potential are ideal for auction and will achieve a higher sale price at auction compared to an estate agency sale. But properties with their potential exhausted will usually sell for more by private treaty (estate agency) sale, unless the property is unique or in a very good location, in which case the top price may be found through competitive bidding at auction.
What happens if an auction property doesn't sell?
Most properties do successfully sell at auction, it's considered the most reliable method of sale. If bidding doesn't reach the reserve price on auction day your property will be made available as an unsold lot. The auction company will contact all interested buyers and ask for their best and final offers. If a property doesn't sell first time around it can be entered into a subsequent auction, that might be 4 or 6 weeks later.
What costs are paid upfront and after an auction sale?
The costs for selling at auction works out to be about the same as using a good high street estate agent. Commission at around 2% to 3% + VAT if the final sale price is only payable on successful sale. Some auctioneers charge an upfront entry fee of £200 to £500, but this can be negotiable and only payable after sale.
How quickly can a property be sold at auction?
Legal exchange of contracts can take place within 3 to 4 weeks, with completion of sale a further 4 weeks later. Timings are flexible; if a seller needs to complete sooner or later, they can ask their solicitor to shorten or extend the completion date.
How do you find a good local property auctioneer?
There are hundreds of property auctioneers in the UK. The best suited auctioneer for your property will depend on the property type and location. Looking at the past auction results (usually available on the auctioneer's website) can be a good starting point to short list a suitable auctioneer.
Popular auction resources
- Guide to selling your house at auction
- Risks and disadvantages of auction sales
- Frequently asked questions
- Online property auction sale costs
- Request an auction sale price estimate
Next steps...
Why not request a free pre-auction appraisal for your property? It only takes a few seconds. Or feel free to call us on 0800 862 0206 if you have any questions.
UK Property Market Update: November 2026
The Budget has come and gone, and for most home sellers it changed very little. On 28 October 2026 the Chancellor, John Healey, left stamp duty, capital gains tax on residential property and inheritance tax thresholds exactly where they were. The widely trailed alignment of CGT with income tax did not happen, and nor did the end of the CGT “uplift” on death. What was confirmed is the High Value Council Tax Surcharge: from April 2028, owners of homes worth £2 million or more (on April 2026 values) will pay an extra £2,500 to £7,500 a year on top of council tax, with the first bills due in March 2028. Landlords took the biggest hit. Income tax on rental profits rises by a further two percentage points from 6 April 2027, on top of the two points announced in November 2025, so rental income will be taxed at 24%, 44% and 49% depending on the owner's tax band.
The bigger influence on the market is still the cost of borrowing. The average five-year fixed mortgage rate reached 6% on 5 October 2026, the first time since September 2023, and was still there at the end of the month. Inflation rose to 3.5% in September, and on 5 November 2026 the Bank of England raised Bank Rate from 3.75% to 4%, its first increase since August 2023. Buyers have not vanished, but Nationwide reports that new buyer enquiries remain weak, and those who are active have more homes to choose from than at any point in the last decade.
House prices and activity
Every main index now shows prices flat or slightly down. Nationwide's October figure puts the average home at £273,566, unchanged on the month and up just 0.5% on the year, the weakest annual growth since January 2024. Zoopla's October index records £273,100 and 0.8% annual growth, with sales agreed 7% below last year and the number of homes for sale 7% higher. Lloyds (the renamed Halifax index) recorded exactly 0.0% annual growth in September at £298,441, and the official ONS index for August has the UK up 0.9% at £273,000, with Wales (3.1%) and Scotland (2.9%) still growing while England manages just 0.4%.
London remains the weakest region on every measure. The ONS has London prices down 2.2% on the year at £554,430, Lloyds has Greater London down 2.2% at £531,548, and Zoopla reports falls in 85% of London postcode areas, with the capital taking 56 days on average to agree a sale against 19 days in Scotland and 44 nationally. Rightmove's October asking-price index did rise 1% to £371,015, with London asking prices up 2.5% in the month, but the national figure is still 0.1% below October 2025, the rise was smaller than the usual October bounce, and 34% of the homes on the market in October had already had their price cut. Zoopla's data shows why that matters: only 19% of homes that needed a price reduction sold within 90 days, against 41% of those priced correctly from the start.
Interest rates
The Bank of England raised Bank Rate from 3.75% to 4% on 5 November 2026, the first increase since August 2023. The Monetary Policy Committee voted 8 to 1 for the rise, and the one member who disagreed, Catherine Mann, wanted a larger move to 4.25%. The reason is energy: oil and gas prices have kept climbing, inflation reached 3.5% in September, and the Bank now expects it to rise to around 5% by the middle of 2027 before falling back. The Bank said that monetary policy is “not on a pre-set path” and that it will adjust Bank Rate as necessary to return inflation to its 2% target. The next decision is on Thursday 17 December 2026. The rise itself surprised nobody (a Reuters poll in mid-October found 54 of 63 economists expecting it), and both Oxford Economics and the Bank's own survey of market participants point to a second rise, to 4.25%, in February 2027. Gilt yields, which drive fixed mortgage pricing, pushed the 30-year above 6% on 1 October 2026 for the first time since 1998 and the 10-year to around 5.5%, before easing slightly to about 5.4% ahead of the Budget. The Budget itself, described by bond analysts as broadly in line with expectations, did not move them much either way.
Inflation
CPI inflation rose to 3.5% in the year to September 2026, up from 3.1% in August, with motor fuel again the biggest contributor: petrol and diesel were 29.8% dearer than a year earlier. Core inflation edged up to 2.8% and services inflation to 3.7%, so this is no longer just an energy story. The next CPI release is on 18 November 2026. Energy costs remain the wild card for the winter: Ofgem's price cap rose to £1,723 on 1 October, and Cornwall Insight forecasts a 16% jump to £1,999 for January to March 2027, with Ofgem due to confirm the figure by 25 November 2026.
Mortgages
Moneyfacts' average two-year fixed rate stood at 5.97% and the five-year at 6.00% on 30 October 2026, the highest since July 2024 and September 2023 respectively, up from around 5.6% in mid-August. Rightmove's October report was blunt about the effect: the rapid rise in rates is biting into buyers' budgets, and sales agreed are running 8% below last year. The Bank of England's own figures show benchmark two-year mortgage rates up by nearly half a percentage point since the start of September 2026. A borrower whose fixed deal ends in the first half of 2027 should be talking to a broker now: the rise on 5 November 2026 was already priced into fixed deals, but a second rise in February 2027 is not fully. Tracker mortgages follow Bank Rate directly, so those borrowers will see the 0.25 point increase in their payments straight away.
What does this mean for property auctions?
Auction rooms are busy but buyers are choosy. The Essential Information Group's September 2026 figures show 4,903 lots offered across the UK, up 5.7% on a year earlier, but only 3,230 sold, a 65.9% success rate against 71.4% in September 2025, and £593.7 million raised. Over the twelve months to September, residential lots offered rose 11.3% and lots sold 9.1%. October told the same story at the big London houses. Allsop's commercial sale on 7 October raised more than £70 million at an 85% success rate, its largest in four years, and its residential sale on 21 and 22 October raised £53.5 million at 82%, with 12 lots selling above £1 million. Savills sold 185 of 249 lots on 20 and 21 October (74%) for £56.2 million. Auction House London sold 238 of 366 lots (65%) for £29.5 million, McHugh & Co sold 64% of 178 lots for £20.1 million, and Barnard Marcus sold 165 of 279 (59%) for £22.9 million.
The gap between a 59% and an 85% success rate is almost entirely about reserves. Catalogues are the biggest in years, so a lot priced optimistically simply gets passed over for the one next to it. Lots that are guided realistically are still attracting multiple bidders, and the properties in most demand have not changed: vacant houses and flats in need of modernisation, in decent locations, where a buyer can see the value they will add. For a seller the arithmetic also still favours auction. A private-treaty sale is taking around four months from accepted offer to completion, roughly one in three of them falls through, and in London only around four in ten listings find a buyer at all. At auction the contract is binding on the fall of the hammer and completion follows within 20 working days, so a lot sold in the December sales (which run from 2 to 17 December 2026) will be money in the bank before the New Year.
Landlords remain the largest single source of new entries, and the Budget gave them two more reasons to think about it: the 24%, 44% and 49% tax rates on rental profits from April 2027, and the private rented sector database, which opens on 15 December 2026 in the West Midlands before rolling out nationally, with a £65 annual fee per property. The RICS August survey showed landlord supply still contracting while tenant demand grows. If you own a tired rental property, a flat with a short lease, or a vacant house you cannot afford to refurbish, the auction market in November and December 2026 has a deep pool of cash and bridging-funded buyers looking for exactly that.
Our advice for the rest of 2026 is simple. Entries for most December auctions close around the middle of November, so instruct an auctioneer in the first half of the month if you want to complete before Christmas. Set a reserve that reflects the indices above rather than last year's prices: in a market where a third of homes have already been reduced, the realistically priced lot is the one that sells. And use the certainty. Bank Rate has gone up once and may well go up again, but a buyer who has exchanged contracts in the auction room cannot come back and renegotiate.