BidX1 announces largest auction catalogue to date

The digital property auctioneer has released the 102 lot-listing ahead of its 24 July sale.

The auction has guide prices totalling £26m, making it not only the largest catalogue to date, but also the largest valued. The value of commercial lots is £15.5m, residential is £9.8m, and mixed-use assets is £1.1m.

The highest reserve listing for a commercial property is Cornwall Place Shopping Centre in Buckingham, which is listed with a guide price of £2.6m.

A vicarage in Norbury, London is also up for sale. The five-bed detached house is listed with a guide price of £630,000.

The catalogue previously included BidX1’s highest reserve, £1m, for a residential listing on a three-bed penthouse in New Caledonian Wharf, Surrey Quays. This has since been withdrawn.

Irish company BidX1 was born from a partnership between property consultants and auctioneers Allsop, and Space Property Group in 2011. When SPG decided to go into online auctioneering, it bought its stake for €4m and rebranded as BidX1.

Private equity house Pollen Street Capital invested £15m into the company in 2018 to expand operations in Ireland, UK, South Africa, Cyprus, and Spain. The company employs 98 staff and is growing.

In May, BidX1 hired Johnny Horgan as managing director of Europe to oversee its expansion. Horgan was previously the executive director for the Capital Markets team at CBRE Ireland.

BidX1 also hired Oliver Childs and the auctions team from property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton earlier this year. LSH responded by creating its own online auction arm called 574.

In eight years, BidX1 has sold assets totalling €1.4bn. Last year, it raised £300m for its clients. It currently has a database with 100,000 registered users and has had 1.6m web visits from 185 countries.

Oliver Childs, head of commercial auctions at BidX1, said: “The latest BidX1 catalogue is our largest to date, both in terms of quantity of lots and capital value. We’re excited by the momentum we’re gaining as evidenced by the size and calibre of the July catalogue.”