Bidding overview

Types of auction

Public auction bidding

In public auctions (standard and extended auctions) buyers have a choice of entering a bid immediately or submitting an automatic bid.

In public auctions, there is a minimum next bid value - where your new bid must be equal or greater than this value.

Private auction bidding

In private auctions (blind auctions), buyers can only enter bids immediately. You can’t submit an automatic bid as all bids are confidential.

In private auctions there is no minimum next bid value as you aren’t able to see any existing bids.

Incremental Bidding

Everyone wants to win the auction, but only at the right price. Although we suggest that you bid the maximum amount that you’re willing to pay for a property, you could pay less.

On The Move Market, depending on the type of auction being held, you have up to two ways to submit a new bid.

In public auctions you can either enter the bid immediately or create an automated bid.

When a bid is entered, it is submitted to the auction and the seller is notified of the price. You might want to enter bids like this when you think the price hasn’t yet hit the reserve and you want to increase your chances that your bid will exceed the reserve.

With automated bids, the bid we submit to the seller is increased only as much as the minimum bid increment to maintain you as the highest bidder. We will keep placing new bids on your behalf up to the maximum bid you have entered.

Automatic bidding

Our max bidding (also called automatic bidding) system makes bidding convenient so you don't have to keep coming back to re-bid every time someone places another bid.

How max bidding, or automatic bidding, works

Here's an example

How to bid

To bid on an item:

When the listing ends, you'll receive an email indicating whether you've won the property auction and an explanation of what to do next.

Cancelling your bid

On The Move Market, you can easily cancel a bid.

Buying property is not the same as buying other items in England and Wales - property is only deemed as sold in England and Wales after exchange of contracts.

We don’t impose immediate/same day exchange of contracts after winning an auction - this enables mass buyer participation in listings. Unlike traditional property auction houses where buyers need to be able to pay a deposit and exchange contracts on the same day.

Due to this, all bids on The Move Market are non-binding bids. They should be viewed as a serious intention to buy the property at the agreed price.

As The Move Market auctions run over long time frames, we allow buyers to cancel their bids if they change their mind.

We still have rules around bid cancellations to stop disrupting auctions purposefully.

If you want to cancel a bid:

If you have won a property auction and you no longer want to buy it, you need to contact the seller.

Other terms

Your bids affect how other users bid for a property and the property's final selling price. We carefully investigate all bid cancellations to determine whether they are appropriate and conform to the rules for buyers. Abuse of bid cancellations can result in the suspension of your account.

Bids cancelled within the last 24 hours of an auction-style listing can be viewed as an example of shill bidding, which is a serious violation of The Move Market policy.

Listings with special bidding requirements

Reserve price auctions

Some sellers specify a reserve price, which is a hidden minimum price on their item.

The fine print

Bidding is meant to be fun, but remember that each bid you place enters you into an auction with the aim of purchasing the property.

All bids are active until the listing closes, unless you set a bid expiry time. You can only set bid expiry times in Blind auctions.

To protect your privacy, we limit how your bid history information is displayed by using anonymous names. Your complete user ID is shown only to the seller of the item you’re bidding on. Bidders are assigned anonymous names, such as x***y, which are used consistently across all listings.