Get ready to move now, for 2024!

I love this time of year, as the trees change colour and the winds spread the copper and bronze leaves to the floor, autumn has definitely landed!  Many people are cosying up ready for winter to set in.  Where will you see the winter through?  Strange as it sounds, we see good sales being agreed through the winter months.  Most buyers who are looking for property at this time of year are motivated and serious, and whilst some of our properties look “wintered”, they are comparable to the next available offering, so making the most of those good buyers is surely to be considered.
 
There is a window of around one month now where activity remains good, thereafter we see steadier levels of interest (save for the super-motivated buyers) until Christmas day.  From Boxing Day onwards, we see interest rise and visits to Rightmove increase.  When I mention this to vendors you can see people looking puzzled, here is what we believe is happening: –

• People tend to spend more time at home over the festive period.  Any other period of annual leave and such are often spent away from home;
• People tend to gather over the festive period, wherever they gather, it can highlight problems with location or size of the home;
• Many go through the motions of “this house is too big”, “ this house is too small”, “we need to be nearer to parents”, “ we need to move further away”;
• Quite often plans for the 12 months ahead form, which may involve job changes or relocation;
• The typical family will “multi-screen” over the festive period, spending more time watching TV, searching on Rightmove or scrolling through social media; 
• A new launch at that time of year is typically one of fewer than it would be in spring, so has every chance of standing out.

With all this in mind, we see the Rightmove statistics rise, from the lower levels in December back up to good activity.  The graphs show:-

• a 69% increase if you take the number of visits to Rightmove in the first week in December compared to the second week in January;
• that 82% more people look at Rightmove on Boxing Day than Christmas Day.

 
The Rightmove information goes on to show that potential vendors look to sell:-
 
– 28^th December highest number of valuation alerts in December;
– 5^th January, third busiest day for valuation alerts for the year.
 
This all means that there will be properties coming to market in January… Our advice, get started as soon as possible and ready for a Christmas launch. This will give you a head start against the competition.
 
We love our work so much, that you will find members of our team up bright and early ready to launch those Boxing Day properties… get ahead, join us and be ready to make the most of this time of year.

*The figures are based on Christmas 2022/3 and were supplied by Rightmove