Busiest festive period on record for homemovers, data shows

The period between Boxing Day and the start of 2022 was the busiest on record for homemovers, says Rightmove.

The property portal recorded a 23% rise in  buyer demand during the recent festive period compared to the corresponding period last year.

When looking at the number of new sellers coming to market, the figures reveal that this was up by 21% on Boxing Day compared to Boxing Day in 2020. This was the highest number of new sellers on Boxing Day Rightmove has ever recorded.

Rightmove also recorded its busiest ever Boxing Day for visits to its site and apps.

Prospective sellers jumped into action on 30 December, the busiest day since May 2021 for people requesting estate agents to come out and value their home, making it into the top ten busiest ever days for these valuation requests on the property platform.

Tim Bannister
Tim Bannister

Rightmove’s director of property data Tim Bannister said: “Boxing Day traditionally signals the start of activity ramping up as people turn their attention from turkey and trimmings to their plans for 2022, and activity is set to increase further as January unfolds and people start to settle down into a routine after the December break.

“Despite the frenzied market activity we saw throughout 2021, we’ve recorded even higher levels of buyer demand in the period between Boxing Day and the New Year this year, driven by a sustained desire to get on and move.

“Not only this, but the increased number of new homes up for sale on Boxing Day compared to last year, signals a new group of sellers coming to market who have made it their New Year’s resolution to move in 2022. This group may have held back last year due to the frantic market but are now seeing it as their time to take action, and have taken advantage of the high number of prospective buyers searching for their next home over the holidays.

“This, coupled with the number of would-be sellers getting in touch with an agent to value their home, suggests more property choice to come for buyers. However, with buyer demand high, we’d recommend getting in touch with a local estate agent to book a viewing as soon as you see a property that could end up being the one for you.”

 

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8 Comments

  1. paul836

    What absolute nonsense. Where do they get this rubbish. I own a market leading business with 4 offices and my rightmove traffic was non existent. I use rightmove because without thinking like an agent this is the general public go to, whatever we may think as agents. But please stop with the silly stats.

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    1. JEL

      Agree … its probably all made up and was written before christmas anyway

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  2. Robert_May

    What is buyer demand? How is it defined, identified, qualified and isolated from non buyer traffic?

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  3. #ImpressiveConveyancing

    The usual heads in the sand / agenda to instill in home movers the FOMO nonsense.
    It was dead and it will be very slow for agents and conveyancers for the next 3-4 months, you watch.

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  4. PeeBee

    “When looking at the number of new sellers coming to market, the figures reveal that this was up by 21% on Boxing Day compared to Boxing Day in 2020. This was the highest number of new sellers on Boxing Day Rightmove has ever recorded.”

    Interesting. I look at the stats daily.  On December 27, 2020, the “Properties for sale added in the last 24 hours, including sold STC” was 3279, and the total on 27 December 2021 was 3987 – which is a 20.9% increase.  So let’s say that is Mr Bannister’s 21%.

    But here’s the thing.  Those big numbers not only include “SSTC” properties as stated that some Agents seem to think is perfectly okay to remove and re-list at will (and the Christmas period is always a popular time to do that, it seems…), but also price reductions.

    So – either Rightmove have just plucked the same figures out of the air that I have without analysing them properly…

    …or by some amazing quirk of fate, the numbers of SSTCs and price reductions recorded on the day were running at identical percentage levels aso genuine, never-before-seen new instructions.

    I know what I believe to be the case.

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    1. singing agent

      Excellent analysis.  It would be interesting to know how many agents worked on Boxing Day and how many would have had support staff in to uploaded properties onto RM?  I think that it is more likely that corporates were re-listing.

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  5. Diogenes

    I visit RMs website to see what’s happening locally & what’s selling. I am not a buyer. I am just nosey. 🙂

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  6. conoco9

    I doubt it! The local corporate who advises vendors to lower their price by 5% to re- launch on boxing day has sold……none!

     

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