Does your Christmas checklist include selling your property? If so, don’t lose hope! Latest research indicates that the autumn months (September, October and November) could hold your best chance of securing a sale before the festive season begins.
Autumn Closing Deals: The New Norm?
Recent analysis by leading estate and lettings agent, Barrows and Forrester, suggests that there’s still plenty of time for home sellers to find a buyer before the Christmas period. Delving into a decade’s worth of property transaction data, the experts have unveiled a surprising trend: autumn emerges as the premier selling season.
Over the past ten years, the largest number of homes have sold during the leaf-falling season. Specifically, a whopping total of 2.709 million properties have successfully completed transactions during these months. When averaged out, this suggests about 270,961 property sales annually during the autumn months.
Summer vs Autumn – a Head-to-head Battle
Yet, summer isn’t slackening either. With 2.705 million property sales completed over the past decade, the sunny months rank second on the busy scale – just a fraction behind autumn. This generated an average of 270,518 property transactions per year – a negligible 0.2% difference when compared to the autumn season.
The Quiet Hibernation of Winter
The winter months, however, don’t quite match the activity that both summer and autumn witness. Over the last ten winters, 2.274 million homes were sold, making it the quietest period in the property market calendar.
A steady decline in transaction levels has been observed with each passing winter, resulting in an average 16% decrease in market activity when transitioning from autumn to winter.
Maintaining Momentum: The Expert’s View
James Forrester, the Managing Director of Barrows and Forrester, has some encouraging words for potential sellers amidst the growing talks of an approaching Christmas.
Despite the spooky season yet to pass, sellers worrying about their Christmas deadline have strong reason to maintain optimism. The statistics over the past decade clearly reflect that more sales have completed during the autumn months than any other season.
Autumn’s propensity for property sales almost identically mirrors the summer performance in terms of the average number of homes sold and the proportion of total sales each season contributes to.
Forrester asserts, “As it stands, we’re right in the middle of the property market peak of activity. So, if you had planned to complete before 2024, it’s well worth pushing on.”
In Conclusion: Embrace the Season
So, if you are a hopeful seller contemplating whether to push for a sale this autumn or wait out the winter, the current property market trends suggest that forging ahead is likely to yield successful results. The takeaway: the temperature may be dipping, but your chances of selling your property certainly aren’t.