The impending end to the stamp duty holiday, more people re-evaluating where they live and the housing market staying open have all contributed to Rightmove recording its busiest ever start to a new year.
Despite the new lockdowns beginning this week in England and Scotland, visits to Rightmove continued to grow across Tuesday and Wednesday, giving hope to those who already have or those who are planning to put their property on the market to sell or rent out in early 2021.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s Director of Property Data, said:
“January is usually one of our busiest months of the year as people start to make new year plans to move, as was the case at the start of last year when we also had the post-election bounce that gave hope of an active spring market, before that all changed with the temporary closure from March until May. We didn’t know how this year would start with so much change and uncertainty around restrictions, but it’s been reassuring for those people hoping or needing to move that the demand we’ve seen so far is the highest we’ve ever had in January.
“The housing market has been allowed to stay open during these latest lockdowns and agents have already spent months working in a covid-secure way and creating a number of property videos, so buyers and renters starting out on their search this year will find that, alongside the safe viewing protocols, more agents are offering virtual viewings to help buyers and renters better shortlist the properties they want to go and see.”
Interestingly, home move comparison site reallymoving has revealed that the busiest day of the year for moving home was the 18th December.
This is a little out of sorts as usually it would be the last Friday in August, but in 2020 it was Friday 18 December, the last Friday before Christmas.
The comparison site, cites:
“Exceptional demand from buyers taking advantage of the stamp duty holiday drove a surge in activity in the latter part of the year, combined with the completion of moves that had been delayed due to lockdown. In fact, every Friday in December apart from Christmas Day (4th, 11th and 18th December) were all among the top 10 busiest days to move in 2020 for the first time.”
This could also coincide with the conveyancing sector trying to get as many transactions completed as possible before they took a well-deserved break. Enabling them to hit the ground running when they returned in the new year.
Demand is set to continue on the profession as more and more clients will their housing transactions to be completed prior to the 31 March deadline. On behalf of everyone at Today’s Conveyancer I want to wish all of those in the profession the very best of luck. You’ve all got this. Be kind to yourself and each other.
