If it was any other year, you might balk at the idea of putting your property on the market during the Christmas period. It seems like a really stressful thing to do when there’s a mountain of other things to be getting on with. And anyway, are there that many people looking at properties in the run up to Christmas or wanting to get involved with such a complicated process when everything’s winding down?
Well, as if you hadn’t noticed, this year’s a bit different! The rules are different and it’s going to be an incredibly strange Christmas for everyone – first off, it’s limited and people will be spending a lot more time at home with fewer people.
Time to Think
We’ve all had a lot of time to reflect on things this year and that’s why the property market has been going through all sorts of weird and wonderful trends, as everyone is reassessing what they want from life and what they want from a property. Mainly because we’ve spent so much time in our local communities and within the four walls we’ve been stuck in!
This will be similar over Christmas this year, with varying different tier restrictions and the lifting of restrictions for small amounts of time, there will be lots of reflecting and time to be proactive or distracted because people’s ‘normal’ Christmas is being upending, leading to lots of time to think and view properties online.
Rightmove saw 150 million visitors to its website in the days after Christmas last year, it could be more in 2020!
Closer to Loved Ones
Because we can’t see everyone we want to this Christmas, lots of people might be thinking about moving because the cumulative lockdowns have emphasised to people that they’d prefer to be closer to family and friends. Again, this Christmas could reinforce that idea and we could see lots of movement, especially motivated by people’s relationships.
Stamp Duty Holiday
There’s still time to take advantage of the government’s stamp duty holiday which expires on 31st March. This has been wildly popular and there’s already thousands more buyers in the market than this time last year, which is leading to some delays, but it’s an exciting opportunity to benefit from.
The interest in this government intervention doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon, so it’s sensible to assume that there will still be loads of buyers looking for something new over the Christmas period. If you’ve been thinking about putting your property on the market then it’s worth doing right now to enjoy the advantages that an upsurge in interest brings and a potential bidding war due to the number of buyers around.
Your property could end up going for an amount that’s higher than estimated, because of the nature of the market and how unpredictable things are right now.
For any advice, information or to talk through your options with our experienced property team at Home EA, get in touch with us today.
