Mixed-use is rewriting the UK auction market.

The UK property auction market raised more than £6bn between April 2025 and March 2026 — a 7% year-on-year increase on a record-breaking 2025. Q1 2026 alone saw 7,738 lots sold for £1.49bn, up 19.5% year on year. The volume story is well known by now. What’s less talked about is how the composition of what’s selling has quietly shifted.

Mixed-use property now accounts for nearly half of all commercial auction lots sold. That category has grown by close to 50% since 2021. Retail’s share is contracting — partly because some retail is being repurposed into mixed-use anyway. Residential continues to dominate the auction halls overall, with terraced houses accounting for around a third of residential lots sold last year, and Renters’ Rights Act-driven stock disposal pushing residential volumes nearly 10% above the previous year.

The mixed-use shift matters because mixed-use isn’t financed the same way as either pure-residential or pure-commercial. Lenders look at the income mix differently. Stress tests are different. Exit assumptions are different. A buyer bidding on a mixed-use lot under the standard 28-day completion clock can’t assume the finance route that worked on their last buy-to-let will work here. And finance lined up for a “commercial” mandate at 60% LTV will look thin when the underlying asset is half-flat, half-shop.

For experienced buyers, this is an opportunity. Mixed-use lots are getting fought over by lenders who understand them, and the right deal at the right loan-to-cost is moving competitively. For buyers who treat finance as an afterthought to the bid, the 28-day window is unforgiving. Across auction finance, bridging and development finance and buy-to-let, the work we do is matching the lender to the asset type, the asset to the borrower, and the borrower to a finance plan that holds together at hammer drop.