Quick Reference > Fees & Charges

One of the more common questions we receive is whether Auctions Live offers discounted per property pricing for large auction events or flat fee day rates when multiple auctions are conducted in a single session.

At first glance, the question makes sense.

If an agency is selling twenty, thirty or even fifty plus properties in one auction event, it may appear that the technology provider is simply processing more auctions at once and therefore benefiting from economies of scale.

However, the reality behind large auction events is often very different.

In many cases, larger auction events require significantly more infrastructure, resources and operational support than a standard auction campaign.

More Properties Usually Means More Audience

One of the biggest misconceptions is that a multi property auction event simply combines several auctions into one.

What actually happens is that these events often attract substantially larger audiences.

Over the past five years, our platform analytics have consistently demonstrated that major auction events attract substantially higher levels of online participation.

These events are typically supported by:

• ●larger marketing campaigns;
• ●broader buyer databases;
• ●corporate promotion;
• ●social media advertising;
• ●email marketing;
• ●media exposure.

The result is more viewers, more bidder activity and longer viewing sessions.

In many cases, viewers remain connected to the livestream for several hours as they watch multiple properties throughout the event.

Some large auction events generate viewing durations that exceed six hours per user.

From a technology perspective, this creates a vastly different infrastructure requirement compared with a typical weekly in-room auction event, which may only run for a few hours on a single day or evening.

Live Streaming Consumption Scales Quickly

Live streaming is not a fixed cost service.

Every viewer connected to a livestream consumes resources.

As audience numbers increase, so do the costs associated with:

• ●video delivery;
• ●content distribution networks;
• ●bandwidth usage;
• ●stream processing;
• ●recording and replay generation;
• ●data transfer.

A large auction event with hundreds or thousands of viewers connected for several hours can consume substantially more streaming resources than a series of standalone auctions conducted throughout the week.

While the event may appear as a single auction day, the underlying infrastructure workload is often much greater.

Traffic Peaks Require Capacity Planning

One of the challenges of live events is that infrastructure must be designed for peak demand rather than average demand.

Unlike many online systems where activity can be spread throughout the day, auction events create concentrated periods of intense activity.

Large auction campaigns often generate:

• ●sudden surges in website traffic;
• ●increased bidder registrations;
• ●higher authentication requests;
• ●elevated livestream viewership;
• ●more simultaneous users.

To ensure platform reliability, additional infrastructure capacity must be provisioned ahead of the event and dynamically scale as audience numbers increase.

The platform must be prepared for the highest expected demand because auction events cannot simply be paused while additional resources are provisioned.

More Properties Create Longer Operational Windows

Our analytics show that a standard auction event typically runs for around two hours, whereas larger auction events can run for several hours.

That longer operating window increases exposure across multiple areas of the platform including:

• ●live bidding systems;
• ●livestreaming services;
• ●bidder registration systems;
• ●event monitoring;
• ●auction administration tools;
• ●result publishing services.

Simply put, the longer an event runs, the longer the platform must actively support thousands of transactions and interactions occurring in real time.

Risk Management Becomes More Important

Large auction events also carry greater operational importance.

When dozens of properties are scheduled within a single event, the impact of any disruption becomes magnified.

For this reason, additional attention is often given to:

• ●system redundancy;
• ●infrastructure monitoring;
• ●performance testing;
• ●operational oversight;
• ●event support readiness.

These measures help ensure a consistent experience for bidders, viewers, auctioneers and agencies throughout the entire event.

Technology Costs Are Not Based Solely on Property Numbers

Perhaps the simplest way to understand the situation is this:

Technology infrastructure is generally driven by usage rather than by the number of properties being auctioned.

A fifty property auction event does not create one property's worth of infrastructure demand fifty times over.

Instead, it often creates a completely different operating environment with substantially higher audience engagement, longer viewing durations, greater traffic concentration and increased platform utilisation.

From a technology provider's perspective, the challenge is not counting properties.

The challenge is ensuring every bidder, viewer and participant experiences a stable, reliable and professional event regardless of scale.

The Bigger the Event, the Bigger the Responsibility

Large auction events are some of the most exciting campaigns conducted across the real estate industry.

They attract strong audience engagement, generate significant exposure for participating agencies and often create memorable auction experiences.

However, behind the scenes, those same events typically require more infrastructure, more planning and more resources to deliver successfully.

While it may seem logical that more properties should automatically result in lower per property costs, the data often points in the opposite direction.

The larger the event becomes, the greater the responsibility to ensure the technology performs flawlessly for every participant from the first property through to the last.