The HomeOwners Alliance says tomorrow is the last day to put a home on the market to have enough time to sell by Christmas.

New research by the HomeOwners Alliance looked at the average time to achieve a sale so far this year. The time is defined as the average time to reach a sale subject to contract.

The average time to sell in each month is determined by calculating an overall average of all of the agents’ average time to sell amongst those agents appearing in our Find an Estate Agent search results for a particular month (approximately 20,000 searches per month).

The average time to sell measure for each agent is calculated using the time to reach sold subject to contract for all properties advertised by this agent on websites during the previous 180 days.

With the nine year average indicating it takes 59 days on average to sell, homeowners need to list no later than Wednesday 23 October if they want a sale by the last Friday before Christmas.

Paula Higgins, chief executive of HomeOwners Alliance, said: “With the wintry weather blowing in and shorter days already, it’s only a matter of time before thoughts turn to Christmas planning. If you have moving house on your 2024 to-do list, then there is still time.”

“Invite three of the best local estate agents to value your property, check out their performance and reviews and carefully read the terms of their contract. When you’ve selected your favourite, instruct them to list your home on the main property portals before the 23rd of October to be in with a chance of selling before Christmas.”