You may think Christmas slows down the property market and people aren’t looking to buy this time of year but that’s not the case. The holiday season is actually considered one of the busiest times of year for property searches.
In 2021, between Christmas and New Year, Rightmove recorded over 51 million visits to their website, with the portal recording the 30th of December as the busiest traffic day of the year. This is 23% growth on the same period in 2020, and evidence that if you are planning a move you should take advantage of improved website traffic over the festive season.
Get ahead of the competition and prepare your property for the market race right away. As the saying goes, you’ve got to be in it to win it. Don’t miss out on your ideal buyer by waiting, capitalise on the busiest time of year and make sure your property is in the running!
On average, property prices drop by 2% in January and February due to the high volume of new properties on the market and competition to sell. If you’re asking price is £250,000 that means losing £5,000 off the value just to compete. This could dramatically impact your available budget funding your move and affect your chances of securing the perfect property.
Now is the time to act. Your property is on the market and you want, and often need, to get close to the asking price. By presenting your property to prospective buyers in December you’re getting ahead of other sellers and increasing your chance of receiving the best price as soon as possible.
You may not want to move before Christmas or even in January, but that’s no reason to wait. It takes, on average, 60 days to find a buyer and the entire process entire process lasting around 12 weeks, so even if you found a buyer today it could be next Spring before you moved in to your new home.
If you decide to market your home in December, you’re getting ahead of the competition and may be able to achieve your moving goals sooner. This will give you plenty of time to prepare and organise everything you need to move into your dream home.
If you're spending time with friends and family over the festive season, why not talk with them about your plans and share your excitement about moving someone new. They’ll want to help and may even offer their services on moving day!
Still looking for your dream home? Try these 3 simple steps, or you could reach out to our friendly support team and see how we could help you today.
Want to see an estimate of how much your budget could be boosted by with the Home for Life Plan? Try our online quick calculator! It's simple, quick, easy to use, and could help you get a better idea of your budget in just a few minutes.
*Rightmove statistics can be found in their House Price Index report