13th November 2024

Is Christmas a bad time to sell a house?

The festive season is known as the busiest time of year, with everyone rushing around buying presents, preparing feasts and putting up their decorations, so naturally anyone would assume that this time of year isn’t great to sell a house.

Despite what many might believe, there are a lot of reasons why someone might be searching for a property around Christmas time. Whether they’ve decided to treat someone special to a grand Christmas present by buying them a house or maybe they’re spurred on by a goal to move out for the New Year, the end of the year comes with new beginnings and a lot of people take this time of year to finally tackle their goals – such as moving house.

In this blog we are going to share with you all the facts and statistics of selling your house at Christmas time and why it can be more successful than you might think.

Why Christmas is a good time to sell property

While the Christmas period can be seen as a slow time for the property market, people buying during this period are usually active buyers who are keen to move quickly, often spurred on by the need to be settled into their new homes in the New Year.

For this reason, smart property sellers will be getting ready to make the most of the festive season rather than shying away from it. Not only do you have a high chance of finding an eager buyer but if you decide to go through an auction, bidding demand might see you achieve a higher sales price. A few other reasons you might find success selling your property at Christmastime include:

• Buyers have more time to browse houses, as many of them will take time off from work over the Christmas period
• They will want to move quickly so they can move in the New Year
• There are usually fewer properties so there’s less competition for selling this time of year
• January is a very high-traffic time for selling houses so ensuring your house is listed and up on the market in December will provide higher chances of it being seen in search and keep you one step ahead of the competition.

Increasing property search trends

You don’t have to take our word that Christmas is a prime time to sell a house either, because there are plenty of statistics to back it up. Among the most impressive statistics we’ve found are from Rightmove, stating year after year that their busiest day of the year for both buyers and sellers is Boxing Day. With many gearing up for their New Year’s goals to move house, Rightmove has Claimed that buyer demand was up by 6% in December 2023 compared to previous years. 

While this is great news for the property market, it also means that with the increase in sellers on Boxing Day, you may struggle to get your property noticed amongst the crowd. 

Christmas property auction success stories

While it’s encouraging to see these statistics from property listing websites and estate agents, it’s also important to talk about the property auction market during this period. 

As one of the biggest property auctioneers in the UK, we are pleased to report similarly encouraging figures in our own auctions from previous years. Last year, in 2023, for example, we sold many properties hosted at our Auction on December 19th, one of the most impressive being a stunning 4-bedroom detached house in Epsom that went for £652,000 (including fees). 

SDL Property Auctions has an impressive record for selling properties over the Christmas period, showing sellers that Christmas is not the ‘avoid-at-all-costs’ season you might think it is. Serious buyers never truly stop looking for their dream house, even when it’s the holiday season and if you want to see more proof of the houses that were sold during Christmas last year then you can browse our past property auction listings to see the results for yourself.

Tips for selling a house at Christmas

If you’ve decided to go ahead and sell your property during the Christmas season then there are a few things you can do to give your property a better chance of standing out and selling quickly.

While it’s a nice idea to have some Christmas decorations up for when people come to view the property, make sure you take the pictures for your property listing before the decorations go up. If your property doesn’t sell over Christmas, then the photos will look obviously outdated come January and may put people off viewing your property.

We recommend putting up Christmas decorations for when people come to view the property, but be careful not to have too many as it might take away from the property itself. Having a few simple decorations like some lights or a wreath on the door will help your potential buyers envision themselves in the home during Christmas and create increased appeal.

As always, be realistic with pricing your property. This especially holds true around Christmas time as the holiday buyers have a bigger desire to move quickly and may not want to spend a lot of time negotiating a different price if they aren’t happy with it – so ensure your pricing is realistic for the area and type of property it is for the best results.

Sell your property this Christmas with SDL Property Auctions

Don’t let the misconceptions of Christmas being a bad time to sell hold you back from getting your property on the market and seeing the success you’re looking for. 

If you want to get ahead this festive season and get your property listed in one of our upcoming auctions, you can book a free, no-obligation valuation with our team.