In a trade deal, Newcastle-headquartered iamproperty has acquired SDL Auctions’ portfolio of Estate Agency Partners who use the SDL online Modern Method of Auction (MMoA) service, welcoming them into the iamproperty Partner Agent network and supporting the next phase of growth for their market-leading iamsold auction service.
The strategic move is part of iamproperty’s continued mission to modernise the property industry and develop solutions and services for Estate Agents, that have speed and security at their heart. This comes as MMoA sales are growing at record levels each month, with consumer awareness and confidence in auction at an all-time high.
The trade deal will create further opportunity for increased focus and innovation at iamproperty and will allow SDL Auctions to focus on traditional, unconditional sales at its live-streamed auctions. Both businesses will continue to offer value-adding solutions to vendors where they seek an alternative to Private Treaty.
Over 1,000 Estate Agency branches will join iamproperty and transition into its Partner Agent network, benefitting from the iamsold auction offering with its unique market-leading platform and service.
Some of the SDL Auctions team will also be joining iamproperty, strengthening its UK team and bolstering its commitment to service excellence for its Partner Agents. The combination of agent relationships and skills will help iamproperty further accelerate the growth of the MMoA category and cement its leadership position in this space.
The deal sees iamproperty’s Partner Agent network increase to over 4,500 branches across the UK. iamsold most recently announced a key milestone, hitting over £1bn worth of property sold via the MMoA in a 12-month period.
Ben Ridgway, Managing Director at iamproperty, said: “This is another very exciting acquisition and is part of our continued mission to modernise the UK property market, creating solutions which save agents time and support them to drive efficiencies and revenues in their business. The SDL Auctions business aligns not only in our mission and proposition portfolio but in our commitment to service excellence and experience for our Partner Agents. We’re really looking forward to welcoming some new teammates to iamproperty too.”
Jamie Cooke, Managing Director at iamsold, added: “This acquisition will help us to further accelerate the growth of the Modern Method of Auction as leaders in the space. We’re pleased to welcome our new agents onboard to the iamsold network. We are excited to build lasting relationships with the agent businesses joining us and to help them further develop their auction offering.”
SDL Property Auctions have retained a number of key estate agency clients, including Knight Frank, and all of its non-estate agency relationships, who will continue to benefit from SDL’s range of auction services including its live-streamed national auctions with traditional unconditional sales. In 2021 alone their live-streamed auction sales raised in excess of £250m.
SDL Property Auctions will continue to champion the secure, faff-free method of sales their auction routes provide to hundreds of customers and clients across the UK every month.
Andrew Parker, Managing Director at SDL said: “We see our area of growth within the market to be through our corporate partnerships, which have already proved to be a success over the last few years. Our deal with iamproperty allows our other Estate Agency partners to continue to be well serviced whilst we continue to grow our business. Our focus is making our customers’ sales journeys as swift and as stress-free as possible. It will be sad to say farewell to our friends and colleagues, but we’re confident that iamproperty will be a great home for them.”
For more information on iamproperty’s award-winning auction service iamsold visit www.iamproperty.com/services/auction
