The problem with an auction is then it comes down to who has the most money

(Smittens wins the obvious award of the day!)

which really leads more to the "Who has been playing the longest" (Not totally, but it still leads down that path). So how about guilds can buy "land", and then so a whole bunch of guilds don't crop up just so one active person can have "land" either the guild formation requirements are raised, or the guild needs to have X players and been around for Y amount of time.

Also then each guild should have a max of like 2 or 3 sectors they can own.