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Boxing Day Boom & Rightmove’s Busiest Ever Start to the Year!

Boxing Day is notoriously busy for property portals. It’s one the busiest days of the year for Zoopla’s website traffic, if not the busiest day. This year searches increased by an incredible 70% suggesting that the house price boom we have experienced since the market reopened is set to continue well into this year.

What’s more, Rightmove reported that from 2nd Jan to 8th Jan, they had their busiest ever start to the year with a 30% increase in traffic compared to the same period last year. In addition, the portal reported an 11% increase in enquiries to estate agents during this time.

After a slower start to the year with the market closed from March to the end of June, the property market was exceptionally busy for Q3 and Q4 leading to £300bn-worth of properties changing hands during 2020, £62bn more than in 2019 when the market was open all year. Buyer demand, combined with a shortage of homes for sale, pushed annual house price growth up to a three-year high of 3.9% in December.

As we enter into 2021 one thing is for certain; despite another national lockdown for the next month or so, the demand for new homes shows no signs of slowing down.
Boxing Day is a typically busy day for online searches for new homes but compared to Boxing Day 2019, 2020 saw a 9.5% increase in traffic.

While searches for new homes traditionally spike on Boxing Day, this year’s jump was significantly higher than the 61% increase recorded on Boxing Day last year. What’s more, searches in December were 33% higher than the same period the year before.

Typically, Boxing Day marks the beginning of an upsurge in traffic which Zoopla believes will intensify in January especially as we approach the March deadline of the end to the LBTT/stamp duty holiday.

Christmas and New Year always proves to be a busy time for property portals and websites as people look towards the coming year and re-evaluate what they want from their lives. This year’s Boxing Day spike is likely to be a result of social distancing measures whereby families were confined to their homes and in the company of only their immediate household and instead of travelling to relatives or even overseas, spending the festive period at home.

This surge in demand for good quality homes is ideal for those who want to sell their homes. Competition remains high as we enter into mid-January, especially with the new lockdown likely to result in people assessing what they need and want from their homes – space, gardens, access to green open space and the ability to work from home and/or home school children.

Clyde Property is a leading independent, multiple award-winning estate and letting agent with more than 30 years’ experience in selling and letting property in Scotland. Just call your local Clyde Property branch today for friendly, impartial advice on finding your next dream home.

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