SDL exits estate agency to focus on auctions

SDL Property Auctions has sold its portfolio of estate agency partners to Iamproperty, to focus on traditional unconditional sales at its live-streamed auction events. More than 1,000 estate agency branches will join Iamproperty as part of the deal, with a number of SDL Property Auctions staff also transferring. Iamproperty said the acquisition was part of its next phase of growth for its Iamsold auction service. SDL said it had retained a number of key corporate clients in the move, including Knight Frank, a number of local authorities, and the Scottish government. Andrew Parker, managing director at SDL Property Auctions, said: “We see our area of growth within the market to be through our corporate level partnerships, which have already proved to be a success over the past few years.  “Our deal with Iamproperty allows our portfolio of estate agency partners to continue to be serviced while we continue to grow our business to the next level.  “We are one of the only auction providers in the UK to offer both traditional and modern methods of auction sales, all in the interest of 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 are confident that iamproperty will be a great home for them.”  Iamproperty managing director Ben Ridgway 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.” Jamie Cooke, managing director at Iamsold, said the acquisition would help it “further accelerate the growth of the modern method of auction as leaders in the space”. To send feedback, e-mail newsdesk@eg.co.uk or tweet @EGPropertyNews