Auctions
Guide price and hammer price
The price a lot is marketed at before auction (the guide) and the price it sells for under the hammer (the achieved price); most auctioneers publish the first and few publish the second.
Also called: auction guide price, hammer price, achieved price, reserve.
Definition
Guide price and hammer price, as the data uses it
A guide price signals where bidding is expected to start and sits at or near the reserve, the confidential minimum the seller will accept. The hammer price is what the lot made. Portals tell you a property went to auction; the achieved price is what tells you what it was worth that day.
MarketCode holds both where published from five auction houses, Allsop back to 1999. About a quarter of lots carry an achieved price and a fifth a net yield, because most auctioneers publish a guide and never the result. Guide and achieved averages are computed over different populations, so subtracting one from the other does not give an uplift or a discount; each row says whether the two are comparable.
Tools
Tools that return it
Auction lots
auction_lots()Individual UK auction lots: the guide price a lot was marketed at, whether it sold, the HAMMER PRICE where the auctioneer published one, and the net yield where quoted.
Auction statistics by district
auction_stats()Quarterly UK auction statistics by postcode district: lots offered, lots sold, the sale rate, and average guide, achieved and net yield.
Auction comparables
auction_comps()Auction comparables on ACHIEVED prices, each against our valuation.
See also
Related terms
- Auction discount: How far below an automated valuation of the same property an auction lot actually sells; a ratio MarketCode can compute because it holds both the hammer price and the valuation.
- Distressed asset: A property that has gone to auction more than once and never sold; on the public record, a vendor who wants out and a market that has said no.
FAQ
Questions about guide price and hammer price
What does Guide price and hammer price mean?
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The price a lot is marketed at before auction (the guide) and the price it sells for under the hammer (the achieved price); most auctioneers publish the first and few publish the second.
Which MarketCode tools return guide price and hammer price?
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Auction lots, Auction statistics by district, Auction comparables. Each runs as an MCP tool in Claude, ChatGPT, Codex and Cursor and as a REST endpoint with an API key, at the same price.
Is hammer price the same thing?
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Yes. auction guide price, hammer price, achieved price are other names for what this entry defines; MarketCode uses "Guide price and hammer price" in its tool descriptions and responses.
See it on a real address.
Thirty minutes, your property or area, every figure sourced.