What does it cost to sell at auction?

Typical 2026 figures: an entry fee around £300 plus VAT, a legal pack from around £200 (plus around £200 more for leasehold information), commission of roughly 2–3% plus VAT with minimums from £1,500 when it sells — and withdrawal fees that can equal the full commission if you pull out. The entry fee and legal pack are usually spent before you know whether it sells.

Is the guide price what I'll actually get?

No — a guide price is marketing, commonly set to attract bidders, and your reserve is the private floor you confirm shortly before the sale. Nobody can determine what someone will pay except a buyer, on the day, in the room. The only real number in any sale is the one a buyer signs.

What happens if my property doesn't sell at auction?

Unsold lots typically stay visible online after the sale, the auctioneer works any interest, and the property can re-enter the next auction round — publicly, with the unsold result on the record. The certainty auction is famous for only ever begins at the hammer; nothing before it is guaranteed.

Is the hammer legally binding?

At a traditional auction, yes — the fall of the hammer is exchange of contracts, the buyer pays a 10% deposit that day, and completion typically follows in about 28 days. That is auction's genuine strength. Modern-method auctions differ: a reservation with buyer fees, then around 56 days to exchange and complete — with fall-through risk in between.

Honest guide · property auctions

Auctions are a fine way to sell a house. Here’s the whole machine, honestly.

Q: How long does it take to sell a house at auction?

Add it up: entering before the catalogue cut-off (auctions run in cycles, so missing it means waiting for the next sale), around four weeks of marketing, auction day, then completion typically 28 days after the hammer. When it sells first time, instruction to money is usually nine to ten weeks; an unsold lot re-enters the next round and the clock restarts.

We recommend auctions on this site — sometimes over ourselves. So here’s how one actually works: the deadlines, the costs you pay before anything is certain, what the hammer really binds, and the one number no auctioneer, agent or valuer can ever promise you.

~4 weeksof public marketing before auction day — after you’ve made the catalogue cut-off for that month’s sale (Auction Estates)

£500+ up frontentry fee around £300 + VAT and a legal pack from ~£200 — usually spent before you know whether it sells (Auction Link, 2026)

The hammerat a traditional auction the fall of the hammer is exchange: 10% deposit that day, completion typically 28 days later — certainty starts here, not before

The auction machine, week by week

Tap each number. This is the journey from “I’ll auction it” to money in your account — including the two cut-offs nobody mentions in the adverts.

1Week zero — you spend before anything is certain

Your solicitor prepares the legal pack — title, searches, leases — from around £200, plus around £200 more for leasehold information, and the entry fee is around £300 + VAT. That’s roughly £500 committed before a single bidder exists. Withdraw later and the fee can be as much as the full commission would have been.

2The catalogue cut-off

Every sale has an entry deadline weeks before auction day, and auctions run in cycles — entries for one month’s sale close as the next month’s catalogue opens. Miss the cut-off and your timeline slips a full round. From the moment you instruct, the calendar is the auctioneer’s, not yours.

3Four weeks in public

Around four weeks of marketing: the guide price published, viewings booked, interest tested — and your reserve, the private floor you’ll actually accept, confirmed in the final days before the sale. Everything about this stage is visible, which is the point — and it stays visible if the result is “unsold”.

4Auction day — where certainty actually begins

If bidding reaches your reserve, the fall of the hammer is exchange of contracts and the buyer pays a 10% deposit that day. This is auction’s genuine strength and we’ll never pretend otherwise. But notice where it sits: at the end of the machine. Nothing before this moment — not the guide, not the viewings, not the interest — is guaranteed.

5Twenty-eight days to keys

Completion typically follows about 28 days after the hammer. Sold first time, instruction-to-money runs around nine to ten weeks. Unsold, the lot stays online, the auctioneer works the interest, and the property can re-enter the next round — with the clock, and the costs, restarting.

Sources: Auction Link, seller fees 2026 · Auction Estates, selling process · Clive Emson, unsold lots. Figures are typical, not universal — every auction house sets its own. General information, not financial advice. Last reviewed August 2026.

Three numbers that aren’t your price — and the one that is

Tap each bar. Auction adverts are full of numbers. Only one kind has ever bought a house.

1The guide price is marketing

Guides are commonly set at the attractive end to fill the room — that’s not a scandal, it’s the mechanism. But it means the number that drew you to auction was never a promise, and the gap between guide and result runs both ways.

2The reserve is your floor, not your hope

The reserve — agreed with the auctioneer and confirmed in the final days — is the lowest you’ll accept, kept private from the room. If bidding doesn’t reach it, there is no sale, and the entry fee and legal pack are spent either way.

3The valuation is an opinion

Every valuation — an agent’s, an auctioneer’s, ours — is a forecast of what someone else might do with their own money. Useful, professional, and still an opinion. No one can determine what a buyer will pay. Only a buyer can.

4The bid is the only real number — and it arrives last

At auction, the real number appears at the very end of the machine, in the room, on the day. We’re the buyer — that’s the difference. Our number isn’t a guide or an estimate: it’s a signed figure with a completion date attached and our reasoning in writing, and it arrives at the start of the process, not the end.

Traditional vs “modern method” — one distinction worth knowing

Traditional auction: the hammer is exchange, 10% deposit on the day, completion around 28 days later. Binding on both sides — real certainty, from the hammer onwards.

Modern method (conditional) auction: the winning bid buys a reservation, not an exchange — typically around 28 days to exchange and another 28 to complete, with the buyer paying a reservation fee of around 4.5% (minimum ~£6,600) on top of the price. That fee suppresses what buyers can bid, and the gap between reservation and exchange is where sales still fall through. It’s the version our plain-dealing page warns about, and the reason our auction introductions are to traditional houses only.

Where auction genuinely wins: unusual properties, hard-to-value lots, and anything where open competition might find a price no single buyer would name. On those, auction can beat any private offer — including ours — and when we think that’s your situation, we’ll say so on the phone.

The questions people ask about auctions

How long does selling at auction take, all in?

Add the pieces: making the catalogue cut-off (or waiting a round), about four weeks of public marketing, auction day, then completion typically 28 days after the hammer. Sold first time: roughly nine to ten weeks from instruction to money. Unsold: the clock restarts for the next round, publicly.

What will I have spent before I know if it sells?

Typically an entry fee around £300 + VAT and a legal pack from around £200 (plus ~£200 more if leasehold) — roughly £500 committed up front. Commission of around 2–3% + VAT (minimums from £1,500) applies when it sells; withdrawal fees can be as much as the full commission.

Will I get the guide price?

The guide is marketing — commonly set to attract bidders — and your reserve is the private floor. What you get is whatever the room does on the day: sometimes above guide, sometimes reserve-only, sometimes no sale. Nobody can determine what someone will pay except a buyer.

Is the hammer binding?

At a traditional auction, yes — for both sides. That’s auction’s genuine strength, and it’s also the honest limit of the promise: certainty begins at the hammer, never before it.

Should I auction, or sell to you?

If your property is unusual and hard to value and you can carry nine-plus weeks and the up-front costs, auction is a genuinely strong route — ask us for an introduction and we’ll make it. If what you need is a figure now and a completion date in a contract, that’s us: the buyer, at the start of the process, in writing, with £500 a day on us if we’re late.

Or skip the room entirely

No catalogue, no cut-off, no room. A figure in writing with the reasoning attached, and a completion date you choose — at the start, not the end.

Or call us: 0191 249 3969 · 8am–8pm, seven days