Data over the past 10 years show that the autumn months of September, October and November are the best for hopeful sellers, according to Barrows and Forrester.
Barrows and Forrester analysed property transaction data over the past decade to see how seasonal trends could impact the property market this year.
The summer months of June, July and August were also busy, with 2.705m summer sales completing in the past 10 years – an average of 270,518 transactions per year.
Over the past decade a total of 2.709m properties completed during autumn, at an average of 270,961 annual sales – a marginal 0.2% uplift compared with summer.
While 2.274m homes sold over the past 10 winters, this was the quietest time of year for the property market, with a decline in transaction levels seen every year, averaging out at a 16% drop in market activity between autumn and winter.
James Forrester, managing director at Barrows and Forrester, said: “Although Halloween is yet to arrive, there are already hushed whispers of Christmas starting to circulate and so it’s only natural that some sellers may be looking to the Christmas deadline with diminishing hopes of completing.
“The good news is that they still have a very strong chance of doing so and, in fact, over the last 10 years, more sales have completed during the autumn months than any other season.
“Autumn also sits almost identically to summer when it comes to the average number of homes sold per year and the proportion of total sales each season accounts for.
“So, as it stands, we’re right in the middle of the property market peak of activity and so it’s well worth pushing on if you had planned to complete before 2024.”
