A lot of statistics are thrown around at this time of year as estate agents attempt to sell homes at the very time of year when moving house is far off thought for most. Let’s face it, with all the Christmas shopping, office parties, and home invasion by distant relatives, how many of us really have the time to clean and tidy in preparation for a handful of home viewings. However, if you’re yet to put the tree up, and you’re thinking of selling in the New Year, there are reasons to get your home ready for the market now.
Rightmove will regularly send us updates informing us that there is a huge upsurge in hits on their site during the festive period and with less homes on the site those marketing will find it easier to stand apart. As Rightmove Analyst Miles Shipside says: “There’s a huge peak in the number of people home-hunting on Rightmove on Boxing Day, and last year there were over 1 million visits on Christmas day itself. It’s highly unlikely you’ll want prospective buyers to come round to have a look while you’re tucking into turkey or leftovers between Christmas and New Year, but being earlier to market means you won’t get left out of this surge in buyer interest if being an early-moving bird is your New Year resolution.”
The flip-side to this is that many don’t want to have viewings starting on their house immediately in January. Most will want to allow bit of post-Christmas digestion to take place before taking the leap in the property market, and despite those high numbers on the search portals it is likely a lot of those buyers won’t start viewing until the week of 4th January. With the popularity of open days now, coming to the market in January with a clear marketing strategy could prove even more effective.
Predictions for 2016:
The market is likely to experience a continual steady rise in house prices. Brighton & Hove look likely to continue experiences record levels of demand whilst a shortage of homes will likely remain. As always it will be ‘London Buyers’ that have the biggest impact on local prices as the city continues its role as a haven for those fleeing the even higher prices of the Capital. There will be a number of tax implications on the buy-to-let sector and it will be interesting to see what impact this has on the rest of the market from April. Despite this we would predict another buoyant year but would encourage sellers to act early to take advantage of buyers current thirst for homes in Brighton & Hove.