Rightmove starts campaign to push Christmas portal visits

22nd November 2015

Rightmove has used its latest monthly house price index to launch its bid to push up its visits to record levels over the Christmas period.

The index itself records a drop in asking prices of 1.3 per cent, the smallest fall since 2011 in new seller asking prices during November - traditionally a month when asking prices drop more significantly in a bid by sellers to shift their homes before Christmas. 

However this year - which is also the first since the launch of OnTheMarket - Rightmove is acting early to encourage maximum Christmas visitor numbers. 

“Home-owners looking to come to market soon after New Year’s Day should contemplate acting slightly earlier given that buyer searches on Rightmove ramp up from Christmas Day” says a statement from the portal. 

It says its director and market analyst Miles Shipside advises: “There’s a huge peak in the number of people home-hunting on Rightmove on Boxing Day, and last year there were over one million visits on Christmas day itself. It’s highly unlikely you’ll want prospective buyers to come round to have a look while you’re tucking into turkey or leftovers between Christmas and New Year, but being earlier to market means you won’t get left out of this surge in buyer interest if being an early-moving bird is your New Year resolution."

In recent years the portal has made considerable effort to publicise its visitor numbers on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, plus over New Year.

As far back as January 2013 it spoke of its success a few days earlier during Christmas 2012. The portal says: “Google Analytics reports that around 18,000 home-hunters saw in 2013 by browsing the main website in the hour between 0000 and 0100 on January 1 2013. They were joined by plenty more people over the course of New Year’s Day as over one million visits were clocked up ... There were over 1.6m visits between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day as home-hunters escaped from the cycle of wrapping presents, opening presents, cooking food, eating food, and slumping down in front of a movie.”

Rightmove claimed that on Christmas Day 2013 there were nearly 14 million page views and over 10,000 emails sent to agents. “On Boxing Day it got even busier, with page views jumping to over 25 million, up 21 per cent on 2012. Views peaked on New Year’s Day, at over 38 million page views” says the portal.

It is clear that Christmas is a busy time for people looking to buy and getting your home on the market during this period will give you the best possible chance of your property being seen by as many people as possible.

For your free valuation please give our Palmers Green office a call on 020 8882 7888, we are happy to offer you advice and guidance. You can put your feet up over Christmas in the knowledge that your home is being marketed to thousands of possible buyers online.