Lambert Smith Hampton’s entire property auction team has left the business.
The highly regarded team of six led by national head of auctions Oliver Childs is expected to launch a new auctions business.
LSH meanwhile is understood to be committed to further growing the online auctions business developed by Childs’ team, while pulling back on traditional ballroom sales. A team has been appointed internally to handle the work and further investment is planned.
The departing team is made up of directors Simon Riggall and Simon Bailey, associate directors Mat Harris and Rob Hills and team administrator Rachael Withams.
They have held five traditional ballroom sales a year at LSH since 2011, raising £73m in 2017, up 22% on 2016. To-date, their ballroom sales have raised £26m this year including a particularly tough July sale held amid growing investor caution.
Childs team also began holding regular online auctions in 2015, disposing of small surplus sites for client Severn Trent Water. It has continued to lead the field in online commercial auctions since then, selling stock for clients including Newcastle City Council, Homes England, private equity firms and LPA receivers.
In April, it sold a failed residential site in Manchester on behalf of administrators to developer Far East Consortium for £5.2m. In March it won a two-year online auction contract with the Ministry of Defence to dispose of surplus sites and has held a successful first sale of eight lots.
LSH chief executive Ezra Nahome said at the time: “This mandate is a further endorsement of our market-leading online auction platform.
“The direction of travel is clear and we are leading from the front, providing an efficient and transparent platform giving wide reaching investors the ability to buy property with confidence and certainty.”
Technology is steadily transforming the auctions sector, most notably with BidX1, Ireland’s biggest auctioneer and an online-only firm, entering the UK market at the start of the year when it bought up traditional auctioneer Andrews & Robertson. Allsop, the UK’s largest auctioneer, held its first online-only commercial sale this year.
News of the LSH team’s departure comes amid continuing uncertainty about the future ownership of the firm: its parent Countrywide’s warning of disappointing earnings and subsequent fall in share price back in June intensified talks between the company and Tosca Fund, which had been attempting to acquire elements of its business.
Childs and Riggall were not available to comment. LSH declined to comment. It is not yet clear whether it will go ahead with the ballroom sales scheduled for 15 October and 10 December.
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