Scott Gray, a regular on BBC's Homes Under the Hammer, writes for the Journal.

Regular viewers of property programmes may recognise me as a familiar face from their television sets. Having been a featured auctioneer many (you’re probably thinking ‘too’), many times on the highly popular ‘Homes under the Hammer’ daytime show. In parallel to my presence on the show, I have spent the past, nearly, two decades as a qualified auctioneer enjoying the one-of-a-kind atmosphere across West Country auction rooms.

When I was invited to write for this column I was delighted to have an opportunity to share with readers some property knowledge and snippets from my every day life as a property auctioneer. If property TV shows alone are anything to go by the popularity of watching others move, improve and invest highlights our nationwide interest in all things property- related.

2020 started with a fresh venture for me, launching a new business and platform to provide weekly online auctions to the South West and beyond. Foreseeing an opportunity to create a more frequent service for buyers and sellers a like in a turnaround to the existing ballroom auctions. The latter meaning selling clients are reliant on the frequency of the auction date itself which is sometimes totally inconvenient or even too late in certain unfortunate financial circumstances.

How was 2020 for the new business? Well, I can report online auctions are becoming an increasingly popular avenue for buying and selling property and land. By conducting an auction online, the whole process is seamless with total transparency throughout, taking away many of the frustrations of traditional property sales and dramatically speeding up the whole process.

Did my view to my move to the online auction world change as we all locked down? Of course there are now more auction houses with the ability to sell online as we saw a pause of the ballroom auction (for now) however I am excited to be working in a new way, appealing to a wider audience online and creating accessible ways for people to own homes and invest.

I look forward to sharing my column with you and welcome any property questions, auction related or otherwise to support your property investments and house moves in the coming months.