Bid on the City, the online Manhattan real estate auction site, has announced the launch of a Hamptons bidding program for rental, rather than sales, properties. The move marks Bid on the City’s first foray into rentals, and the company plans to unveil this new branch of its site with a Hamptons bidding event “on a Saturday in late February or early March,” according to a release sent yesterday. The rental auctions will be structured differently from the site’s Manhattan events, opting for a so-called “Dutch auction” rather than the more traditional approach. “Unlike traditional bidding in which the price goes up and bidders have an opportunity to increase their bids, the Dutch auction… has incremental decreases [from a higher starting price] until the first bid comes in,” a statement from the auction company explained. Once someone puts in a bid, the auction is over. Although it is not yet clear what villages in the Hamptons the site will focus on, the company said it will make information on the rental listings available 30 days prior to the auction event. Last year during this same month, brokers told The Real Deal that they were less optimistic about the coming rental season, with rental activity way down. TRD

While residential property auctions have long been associated with distressed properties, some real estate professionals are now testing them on regular apartments that are simply not selling that fast. On this week’s Webcast, The Real Deal’s Sara Polsky checks out one of the first Manhattan property auctions to provide an alternative to the normal brokerage process. Bid on the City, which operates out of a Fifth Avenue storefront, put five properties — with starting bids ranging from $299,000 to $1.13 million — on the auction block last weekend. The Real Deal spoke to all the major players at the auction and got the results. To watch the full Webcast, click on the video above.