Paul Fosh Auctions has retained its position as the top selling property auction house in Wales for the 13th year in succession.
Newport-based Paul Fosh Auctions, which conducted its sales totally online in 2020 after going into lockdown in March last year, has emerged as number one in the national league.
Paul Fosh Auctions sold 371 properties at a total value of £33, 315, 351 at its Wales auctions in 2020 with an average lot value of £89,799. The number of properties sold by the Gwent auction house was more than three times that of its nearest challenger in the chart, which sold 95 lots over the same period.
The total value of Paul Fosh Auctions sales for 2020 shows an increase of almost £5m on those achieved under ‘normal’ circumstances in 2019.
The annual auction sales chart, a highly regarded guide within the industry, is compiled by UK industry experts Essential Information Group (EIG) and published in association with industry ‘Bible’, Estates Gazette.
Paul Fosh Auctions Managing Director, Paul Fosh, said: “The past 12 months has been as challenging as any I have known in the twenty years since Paul Fosh Auctions was established.
“Online auctions have proved to be a phenomenal success for us but it was a real baptism of fire at the start when we had just a matter of a couple of days to shift what would have been a normal terrestrial ball room sale online when the country was plunged into lockdown in March last year.
“Online is most definitely the future for us, you only have to look at these figures to realise that this is the future. We were prepared for online sales as we had done the groundwork putting systems and procedures in place on a trial basis as, as a business, we’re always looking to innovate and improve. This, as these results clearly show, has paid dividends.”
Mr Fosh said customers, property sellers and buyers, had embraced the changes and the auction business was now welcoming bidders from across the globe to its online auctions.
The property expert, who lives near Monmouth, in Monmouthshire, opened his first office in Gold Tops, Newport, on February 1, 2001 before moving to Church Road and now has headquarters in Lower Dock Street.
He said, going online after standing in front of a packed hall, gavel in hand for almost twenty years, had been a revelation.
“Although I enjoy standing on a rostrum, in front of a room full of people the stats prove why we should never go back to a room sale. Online we have thousands of people registered to bid. With the best will in the world, in a room sale we have between 250 and 300 people in an auction room with probably only half of those registered to bid.
“The online sales attract bids from people across some sixty countries and record more than 100,000 hits on the website during a typical online sale. People bid from wherever they may be, on their smart phones and mobile devices, sitting at home, in the park or by the pool and across all time zones.”
Paul Fosh Auctions now hosts virtual tours of properties for sale allowing potential buyers, wherever they are in the world, to a detailed and intimate view of what they want to buy.
“Going online has opened up the auctions to more and more people around the world. Online auctions are here to stay, and I don’t ever see us going back to auction room sales.”
Paul Fosh Auctions, which launched a lettings business three years ago, now offers a complete package from buying to renovation and renting to sales.
The next Paul Fosh Auctions online sale, when some ninety lots will be offered for sale, starts at 12 noon on Tuesday, April 27 and ends from 5pm on Thursday, April 29.