Many people think that trying to sell their property over the festive period is a mistake, but that is no longer the case. Over the last several years, there has been a steady increase year on year in the number of active home buyers looking online over the Christmas period, with Christmas Day pulling in millions of page views on Rightmove, and even more on Boxing Day!
Surely we can expect more of the same again over this Christmas period and into 2021? Of course this trend could be affected by the pandemic, but with the property industry flourishing through the last few months (assisted heavily by the Stamp Duty Holiday) it will be interesting to look at the data come the end of January 2021.
If you stop and think about it, this increase in online activity makes sense, as people have more free time over the Christmas holidays and the motivation to make changes in the New Year, so it can be a great time to buy and sell. If you’re looking to sell your property and you’re not listed online already, you could be missing out on this spike in property searches if you hold back and wait until January 2021 to bring your home to market.
Rightmove
The Rightmove graph below shows property searches doubling over Christmas and New Year following the annual trend. As to be expected, page visits were lower on Christmas Day, however traffic continues to increase daily until the end of December (with a dip around New Year’s Eve) followed by a serious ‘peak’ in page visits in the early days of the New Year.
These trends most likely exist because after Christmas is over, and people are ready to start making plans for the New Year, which can often include a new start with a home move!
So what does this mean for sellers?
It means if you’re looking to sell early in 2021, you will need to ‘beat the Post-Christmas rush’ and arrange to get your property online now to take advantage of the amount of active home buyers online during this period.
There’s no need to panic though, if you instruct before the holidays, we can get it all sorted by Christmas – putting you in a great position for viewings in January.
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If you’re interested in finding out more, please contact your local branch and say you’ve seen our Wrapped Up 2020 Campaign!
