A hotel in Manchester has taken the crown as the most popular lot sold by John Pye Property as the auctioneer approaches its 50th online auction.

The property experts – who were the first in the market to offer completely online auctions in 2013 – reported that Trafford Park Hotel in Manchester attracted 232 bids, the most bids on a single auction lot sold by the firm.

Since 2013, the auctioneer has offered more than £250 million worth of property from Falmouth to the Shetland Isles. Over the past 49 auctions, the highest proportion of properties purchased have been located in the Midlands, the North West and across Wales. However, most areas in the UK have seen a property come to auction with John Pye.

The top five properties by value sold by John Pye Property since 2013 are as follows:

• A residential property in Tooting, London, went under the hammer for £630,500
• Bidding on the Trafford Park Hotel was extended by nearly two hours and sold for £900,000
• Some retail units in Western Avenue, Brighton, which went for £1.9 million
• A warehouse in Stourvale, West Midlands, fetched £1.26 million at auction
• A high-street retail opportunity in Bold Street, Liverpool, which sold for £2.52 million

Richard Reed, head of property at John Pye Property, commented: “In the time we’ve been selling property at online auction we have seen some significant changes to the property landscape, including major tax increases affecting the property investor market, a number of elections and Brexit. All these factors have made the property industry a challenging market.”

He said that despite the challenges facing the property market, the auctioneer is still seeing a growing appetite for online auction sales, with over 400,000 registered bidders and buyers.

As well as developing the first online property auction for the UK market, John Pye Property also recently launched an online estate agency with 0% seller fee, £0 marketing costs and £0 entry fee.

Reed continued: “With the emergence of the online property market and an ever-growing variety of properties that are suitable for buy-to-let, investors and homeowners we find that buyers in 2019 are having to become digitally savvy and prepared to think outside the box when it comes to making their purchase.”

“We predict that we’ll see more and more agents and auctioneers move to an online business model in the next few years.”

John Pye Property’s next online auction takes place on 26-27 June from 11am. For more information, click here.