Why August may not be the busiest month for house moves
The final Friday of August may be touted as the busiest moving day but it appears to depend on if there is a Stamp Duty holiday.
Research by TwentyCi has aimed to address the narrative that the last Friday in August is the busiest move date.
It looked at the busiest completion days for the years 2020 to 2024 and found that the highest the last Friday of August for each year actually placed was fourth in 2024.
The analysis highlights that the Stamp Duty holiday during the pandemic may have skewed the data.
It comes as little surprise that the busiest day overall from the past five years was actually the last day of the Stamp Duty holiday, 30 June 2021 with 30,448 completions.
The busiest day last year occurred on 28 June followed closely by 28th March.
Even in 2022, when the last Friday of the month fell on the long bank holiday weekend, the last Friday in August only managed to reach ninth place.
However, when you look at 2022 to 2024 in isolation and remove potential skewing from the Stamp Duty holiday, August does come out as the busiest moving month, followed by March and then October in third position, according to the research.
When looking at each year between 2020 and 2024, activity is skewed towards when Stamp Duty holidays were lifted. Therefore August was the busiest month in 2020 and June in 2021 before August returned in 2022 and 2023.
Last year, August ranked third, but TwentyCi highlights that data on this is not yet complete.
The only real trend, it said, is that unsurprisingly, summer and springtime rank higher than colder months for completions.
TwentyCi said in a blog post:
“The media continues to peddle the narrative that the last Friday in August is the busiest move date, but our analysis has revealed that the last two years have seen the last Friday in June as the busiest day.
“Some movers are keen to settle in before the summer holidays begin. For all those involved in the property market, recognising and preparing for this peak, alongside the busiest month of August, will make a difference in delivering smooth moves.”
Kindly shared by EstateAgentTODAY Image courtesy of Adobe
