Glasgow auction house on track for record year

A Scottish property auction house is heading for a record year as a growing referral network helps drive sales and turnover.

Glasgow-based Prime Property Auctions, founded by John Morris in 2022, is on course to reach £3 million turnover in a financial year for the first time following a strong opening six months.

Referrals have played an increasing role in that growth, accounting for 34 per cent of properties sold so far this year, compared with 29 per cent last year.

Prime offers commission of one per cent or £1500 plus VAT for successful referrals, with John and fellow director Luis Guarin paying out £350,000 in fees during the previous year.

John said: “Our success so far has been built on referrals; we have become the go-to auction partner for estate agencies, letting and commercial agents alike - they all understand that we can get properties sold which they may be struggling to.

“It has been a positive first half of the year, due in no small part to the volume of referrals coming in. 

“The element of trust is huge for us and more and more people are putting their faith in us to sell their properties, be that a commercial unit, a piece of land or a house.”

The business is now looking to build on the model with the launch of Prime Partners, a new online portal designed to streamline the referral process.

Around 100 partners have already signed up to the platform.

The expansion follows Prime’s recent relocation to a larger headquarters in the south side of Glasgow, with the company aiming to establish itself as a leading UK property auction house.

Luis added: “We have developed a portal whereby people can register as a ‘Prime Partner’ and it makes for a very straightforward process with details automatically uploaded into our CRM and logged as a lead for the team to look at.

“Previously, John and I had sometimes been the bottleneck when it came to referrals as because we were so busy, we were unable to act as quickly as we would have liked. 

“But the team is growing and someone can now jump on a lead immediately. 

“The easier it is to refer a property to us, the more properties we can sell and the better the results we can get for our clients – and the more properties our partners want to give us!

“We understand that it is a massive part of our business and want to make the partners process as easy as possible as we continue to grow.”

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