Muckle advises iamproperty Group on its second acquisition of the year

Expert lawyers from our Corporate team advised a North East property technology firm on its second acquisition of the year, supporting continued growth in the online property market.  

Newcastle-based iamproperty group, the UK’s largest residential auctioneer, has acquired SDL Auctions’ portfolio of 1,000 estate agency partners that use the Modern Method of Auction (MMoA) service for an undisclosed amount. It’s a strategic step in iamproperty’s ongoing plans to modernise the property sector, develop safe and speedy solutions for estate agents, and grow its online auction service.

Ben Ridgway, managing director at iamproperty, 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. We’re really looking forward to welcoming some new teammates to iamproperty too.”

Jamie Cooke, managing director at iamsold, added: “This acquisition will help us to further accelerate the growth of the Modern Method of Auction as leaders in the space. We’re pleased to welcome our new agents onboard to the iamsold network. We are excited to build lasting relationships with the agent businesses joining us and to help them further develop their auction offering.”

Investing in growth

The iamproperty group, founded in 2009 by Mr Cooke and Mr Ridgway, is best known for its iamsold online property auction site, which recently achieved annual sales of more than £1bn worth of property and employs close to 400 people.

Recent accounts for iamsold showed a 42% rise in revenues to £34.3m and the SDL acquisition is iamproperty’s second major deal of the year; in March we announced their acquisition of cloud-based property software business, VTUK.

SDL Property Auctions have a number of estate agency partners using its live-streamed national auctions. In 2021, the company’s auction sales topped £250m.

SDL managing director Andrew Parker said: “We see our area of growth within the market to be through our corporate partnerships, which have already proved to be a success over the last few years.

“Our deal with iamproperty allows our other estate agency partners to continue to be well serviced whilst we continue to grow our business. Our focus is 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’re confident that iamproperty will be a great home for them.”

Trusted Partners

Anthony Evans, partner and head of our Corporate team, led the legal advice to iamproperty with support from Hayden Richards. Anthony also advised iamproperty on its VTUK acquisition earlier this year.

Eoghan Johnston, Chief Financial Officer for iamproperty, said: “We’re very happy to be building the iamproperty Group portfolio with legal advice from the team at Muckle. They have the expertise and a real understanding of our business and what we want to achieve.”

Commenting on the deal, Anthony said: “It’s a pleasure to work with the team at iamproperty as they continue to modernise the property sector and develop innovative solutions for estate agents. We’re pleased to see their portfolio grow and delighted to have advised on this exciting deal.” 

We can support your business transactions. To learn more, please contact Anthony Evans on 0191 211 7819 or [email protected].