Is Boxing Day the Best Day of 2020 to Sell Your Home?

If you thought Christmas was a time for yuletide joy, pressies galore and those colour tissue hat thingies you find inside crackers, then think again.

Over the years, the holiday season has evolved and become an increasingly popular time for people selling their home. Who knew that Santa could fit a three-bed end of terrace house down a chimney and under the tree? 

This year, in particular, will see a raft of buyers searching for new homes, thanks to Christmas Lite (stupid Covid) and the desire to complete transactions before the stamp duty holiday deadline in March. So if you’re waiting for the new year to sell your house, you could miss out on millions of property searchers browsing the portals during the Christmas lull.

But which day is the best to put your home on the market, listed with its professional photos and looking all snazzy for prospective buyers? It turns out that Boxing Day is the sweet spot, as it’s proven to be the most popular time to list your home over the festive period. 

Here’s why…

Rightmove and Zoopla get record number of visitors on Boxing Day 

In years gone by, millions of people hit the UK’s largest property portals on Boxing Day. After all the excitement of the big day, most found themselves twiddling their thumbs and thinking about the year ahead. As a result, around 30 million people look for a new home on Rightmove and Zoopla between December 26th and New Year’s Eve, with Boxing Day the peak for searches.

Last year, Rightmove announced a record number of website visitors on Dec 26th, with Zoopla also seeing a high volume of property searchers. With Covid restrictions in place Christmas it looks like the portals will see even more action than previous years. 

Traditionally, sellers would wait until the new year to list their property. But with the dynamic changing, many of those looking to sell their home could miss out on vital exposure to millions of buyers if they delay listing their house by a few weeks.

Christmas, Boxing Day, gifts, selling house

Boxing Day is the perfect day for browsing properties 

Whether it’s the inability to move because you’ve eaten too much turkey, or sheer boredom of the Xmas comedown, Boxing Day sees many of us confined to the couch, scrolling and clicking away on our phones, tablets and computers. It’s the perfect time to look to the future, and for lots of us, that means finding a new home. 

From downsizing to upsizing, and just about everything in between, we start making plans, and where we live is often the number one priority. This year, changing moving habits that are related to Covid should also supercharge the market, with a growing number of people looking for somewhere away from cities with more outside space. 

Most of those searches will start on the 26th of December, otherwise known as the “Boxing Day Bounce”. And you’ll want to ensure that you’re part of the trend so that your house has the best chance of selling quickly. 

Boxing Day likely to hit record numbers in 2020 

Residential transactions were 5.2% higher in January 2020 than they were in the same month of the previous year – a result of the Boxing Day Bounce. This year is likely to see the trend continue as Covid restrictions encourage us to spend more time indoors on our smartphones, tablets and computers.

Add the stamp duty holiday into the mix, and people will be eager to complete before the 31st of March deadline. Subsequently, you can expect to see a rush of buyers, with Boxing Day likely to hit record numbers this year. 

You should sell your home on Boxing Day 

There’s no doubt that the current market is a great time to sell your home – there was increased activity even before the festive period. But having your home ready to go the major portals in time for the holiday season can only help your chances of achieving a sale. Especially if you use an estate agent who is available throughout the festive season, which is where Mashroom comes in.

Request a callback with one of our property experts, and they’ll be happy to help you get your home sale-ready in time for the holidays. Even better, we’re available online all the time, which means there’s always someone around to help.


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