A new year and a new home? The Boxing Day bounce sees positive signs for the property market...

According to recent figures, 2024 has started with record numbers of people searching for new homes to buy.

Property portal Rightmove says the “Boxing Day bounce” traditionally signals the start of home-mover activity starting to ramp up for the new year following an expected lull over Christmas.

According to Rightmove, a new record number of sellers also planned ahead to get their homes ready to put on the market on Boxing Day.

There was a 26 per cent increase on last year’s figures for new sellers within the same time frame – and the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023 was already a record year.

Buyers apparently began getting their new year moving plans in motion on Boxing Day.

Visits to the Rightmove platform nearly doubled between Christmas Day and Boxing Day (up 84 per cent) and were eight per cent higher than last year.

The level of demand from potential home-buyers, measured by the number of enquiries sent to estate agents about homes for sale, jumped too, and more than tripled (up 273 per cent) from Christmas Day to Boxing Day.

There were also 17 per cent more buyer enquiries on Boxing Day than the year before.

The figures have been heralded as a positive sign that the housing market might be beginning to move back towards more positive and steadier activity.

Rightmove’s property expert Tim Bannister said: “The scale of this year’s Boxing Day bounce is an early positive sign at the start of the year that buyers and sellers are out there and taking action, likely including some movers who had put their plans on hold last year.

“While it is early days, it will be key to monitor activity as it ramps up through the end of winter and into spring.

“It will be particularly important to track whether sellers are pricing attractively enough to agree a sale with a buyer quickly, given buyers now have more choice to consider than last year and are still very price sensitive.”