Distressed Assets

04/09/2026

Property Developer Show Manchester 9th September 2026. Meet Dominic Farrell for the latest insights on property auctions in the UK.

03/09/2026

The Auction Market Has Just Sent Us A Warning

Yesterday’s Venmore online auction in Liverpool contained 41 lots. Only 7 sold under the hammer.

A further 4 sold prior, 7 were postponed and 2 were withdrawn.

Strip out the properties that never reached the auction and the numbers are stark:

• 28 lots were actually offered
• 7 sold
• 21 failed to sell
• True auction day clearance: 25%

Even using the more favourable calculation, adding the four sold prior properties and excluding the postponed and withdrawn lots, the clearance rate was only 34.4%.

The recent North West auction market average was approximately 65.5%.

This wasn’t simply a quiet auction. It was a very weak result.

Auctions are one of the clearest measures of property market sentiment. There is nowhere to hide. A property either attracts competitive bidding and reaches its reserve, or it doesn’t.

The wider economic background matters.

The Bank of England Base Rate remains at 3.75%, but that figure doesn’t tell the whole story. The 10-year gilt yield reached 5.29% yesterday, its highest level since 2007, while the 30-year yield approached 5.9%, close to a three-decade high.

Those movements affect market funding costs and ultimately feed through into mortgages, bridging finance and investor returns.

Rightmove’s average two year fixed mortgage rate has risen from 4.95% to 5.09%. Average new asking prices fell by 2% in August, the largest August fall since 2018, and the number of homes for sale is at its highest level for this time of year since 2014.

Buyers therefore have more choice, more expensive finance and less reason to chase marginal deals.

Yet the auction result also tells us something else.

Every property that sold under the hammer achieved more than its guide price. Buyers are still there, and they will compete aggressively when they see genuine value.

What they will no longer do is bid on an unrealistic reserve.

For investors, the most interesting number isn’t the seven properties that sold. It is the 21 that didn’t.

Those vendors have now tested the open market and received their answer. Some will remain unrealistic. Others will become increasingly motivated.

That is where the opportunity begins.

The bond market is warning the Government that spending, borrowing and political promises have consequences. The auction market is warning vendors that pricing also has consequences.

Cash, certainty and the ability to move quickly are becoming increasingly valuable. The next deals may not be found in the auction itself. They may be found in the days and weeks afterwards.

We have a buyers' market and deals to be done.

The next Distressed Assets Workshop is Saturday 17th October 2026 in London and LIVE ONLINE - Further information can be found here:

https://www.distressedassets.co.uk/property-auction-courses

02/09/2026

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025: a highly predictable outcome

by Dominic Farrell

Many of us have been warning about this for the past couple of years.

The Renters’ Rights Act may have given tenants more protection on paper, but it has done nothing to address their biggest problem: a shortage of homes. As landlords leave the market, supply falls. At the same time, demand continues to increase. The inevitable result is greater competition and higher rents.

There is another consequence which receives far less attention.

If it becomes more difficult, expensive and time-consuming for a landlord to regain possession when something goes wrong, landlords will protect themselves at the beginning of the tenancy.

That means increasingly strict referencing. Stable employment, an excellent credit history, a strong income and, in many cases, a homeowner guarantor.

Unless you are effectively a “gold-plated” tenant, securing a property will become considerably harder.

The people most likely to suffer are those at the lower end of the market: applicants with irregular earnings, previous credit problems, benefit income or no access to a guarantor. They will be competing for fewer homes while landlords become increasingly risk-averse.

Tenant protection is important, but legislation cannot repeal the basic laws of supply and demand.

If the Government genuinely wants to help tenants, it must increase housing supply, encourage responsible landlords to remain in the market and create a fast, effective court process for dealing with genuine breaches.

Instead, we have fewer properties, higher rents and more tenants being rejected.

Highly predictable, and entirely avoidable.

Laura Meyer, 28, told the Daily Mail she has found it impossible to find an affordable one-bedroom flat in south-west London since the Renters' Rights Act came in.

30/08/2026

How to Use AI For Property Auctions

AI has changed property auctions. Legal packs that once took days to read are now sifted in minutes for pennies. Pre-bid enquiries, comparable sales, refurbishment costings, yield modelling, all sorted at machine speed. The private investor now sits at the same table as the institutional buyer. But....

30/08/2026

30,000 Landlords Sell Up - Why Smart Investors Should See Opportunity

Thirty thousand landlords have left the buy-to-let market. That is the headline. And, depending on which side of the argument you are on, it will either be presented as proof that landlords have finally had enough, or as evidence that the private rented sector needed reform in the first place.

But if you are a serious property investor, I want you to look beyond the politics and beyond the headline. Because when a market changes, it creates risk for people who are unprepared and opportunity for people who understand what is actually happening.

The old model of buying an average house through an estate agent, paying the full retail price, putting in a tenant and hoping that inflation bails you out has been under pressure for years. Tax, interest rates, regulation, maintenance and compliance have all tightened the margins. Many landlords are deciding that they have had enough.

That creates a genuine problem for tenants if the supply of rented homes falls. But it also creates an opportunity for smart investors who know how to buy below market value and operate professionally. The properties have to go somewhere. The question is: who is going to buy them, at what price, and what will the numbers look like when they do?

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5rc2oy4G7CyvmVrj4z7QDZ?si=IFvohU6RSZ-C7ODOj-wTKw

The Property Auctions Podcast · Episode

19/08/2026

New fourth edition: up-to-date for 2026.

Whether you’re completely new to property auctions and buy-to-let or a seasoned investor, Property Auctions: Repossessions, Bankruptcies and Bargain Properties contains the expert information, insight and guidance you need to improve your skill and profits in any market climate. Whatever your interest in property investment; whether you want a quick return or maybe to fund your retirement long-term, Property Auctions will give you the skills to achieve your financial goals, and not just in rising markets but all market conditions; rising, falling or stagnating.

This book demystifies the acquisition of ‘distressed’ properties at auction and shows you how to make money whatever the economic weather. It brings together all of the key concepts that successful property auction investors focus on which, when combined, will give you a solid platform on which to base investment decisions.

The first part of the book details the tools and techniques to help you identify, analyse and filter properties, shortlisting your targets. The second part takes you through the actual viewing and buying process and the tactics involved to be successful. Now in its third edition, the book contains a new chapter on selling and trading property at auction.

Property Auctions also gives clear, concise and detailed guidance on raising finance and the auction legal process - two essential components of the journey which are key to success. All the principles are fully evidenced with real-world case-studies to show how the theory works in practice.

There is no better place to purchase below market value properties, whether to hold for the long-term or develop, add-value and sell.

https://amzn.eu/d/0e2HOHHg

03/08/2026

Learn how to buy property at auction below market value with Dominic Farrell — property auction expert, investor, author and mentor.

Join Dominic Farrell and the Distressed Assets team for the Property Auctions and Distressed Assets One-Day Intensive Course in London or LIVE ONLINE on Saturday 17 October 2026.

🎟 BOOK YOUR £97 PLACE:
https://www.distressedassets.co.uk/event-details/property-auctions-and-distressed-assets-one-day-intensive-course

You’ll learn how to:

• Find genuine below-market-value property deals
• Analyse property auction legal packs and identify risks
• Finance an auction purchase, including bridging finance
• Develop a bidding strategy to avoid following the herd
• Use AI to research and analyse property auction opportunities

Dominic Farrell has specialised in property auctions and distressed assets since 2008. He is the author of the UK’s No.1 bestselling book about property auctions, “Property Auctions: Repossessions, Bankruptcies and Bargain Properties” (4th Edition, 2026), and host of The Property Auctions Podcast.

The course also features Claire Farrell, a practising property and construction solicitor with 25 years’ experience, and Joshua Lee, a specialist mortgage and bridging finance broker.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DOMINIC FARRELL:
https://www.distressedassets.co.uk/dominic-farrell

Seats are limited. Don’t buy at auction blind.

02/08/2026

Why I don’t pay for specialist property auction software.

I regularly receive emails from people selling software designed for property auction buyers.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Everyone I’ve spoken to has been perfectly pleasant and is simply trying to build a business.

My answer, however, is always the same:

“Thanks, but I don’t need it.”

Why?

Because general purpose AI is already extraordinarily capable and improving at a remarkable pace.

As my mentees know, I’ve long been a fan of Anthropic, whose Claude models are widely used within the legal profession. I generally use Fable 5, although Opus also does the job extremely well while using less of my allowance.

Now there’s another serious contender: OpenAI’s GPT‑5.6 Sol. It has several reasoning levels; for detailed auction work, I use Max.

The accompanying graphic shows just some of what it can do:

• Filter large numbers of auction lots
• Analyse legal packs
• Identify missing documents
• Flag title, lease and compliance risks
• Gather market intelligence and comparable evidence
• Assess value, costs and potential exit strategies
• Produce focused questions for the solicitor

It is outstanding.

For around £20 a month, you can carry out a remarkable number of these initial assessments, provided you choose the appropriate model and manage your usage sensibly.

I’ve only been using these tools since April, just four months. In that short time, the quality and depth of the information they produce have improved dramatically.

I’m not packaging this up and selling it. The technology is already available to everyone.

Build your own process. Personalise it. Test it. Perfect it.

One important caveat:

No AI is 100% accurate.

Use AI to filter lots, interrogate legal packs and expose potential risks. Once you’ve identified a property you’re seriously considering, instruct a solicitor to review the legal pack and report on it.

AI for reconnaissance. A solicitor for the attack (legal sign-off).

Until AI comes with professional indemnity insurance, that remains the sensible approach.

Distressed Assets source below-market value UK property investments at property auctions and also run property auction courses and mentoring programmes for private investors.

26/07/2026

Off plan is a sales product, not an investment

Ask yourself who actually makes money out of off plan and new build apartments. The sales agents.

They take a whopping commission from the developer, and in many cases they charge the investor a fee on top. Two bites at the same cherry.

The ‘investments’ themselves rarely stack up.

Spend ten minutes online and you will find the horror stories. Service charges that double. Values that sit flat for a decade. Owners who cannot sell at any price. Best avoided.

Stick to freehold houses and freehold blocks.

If apartments are your thing, look at small conversions in the north, the sort of building where you can seek Right to Manage (RTM) and take control of the running costs yourself.

Buy distressed stock at auction, or genuinely off market. Net yields of twenty and thirty per cent are out there for people prepared to do the work.

Happy to have a chat about any of this. Just e-mail via our website.

25/07/2026

Learn to value a property. It’s a crucial skill both in property auctions and private treaty. You can’t decide on your maximum bid unless you can accurately forecast the end value