Make a date with Rightmove to boost marketing campaigns

As the property market warms up while outside temperatures are cooling heading into Autumn, there’s a date for agents’ marketing diaries on the horizon.

Every year, Rightmove announces the specific day sellers need to list by in order to achieve a sale before the end of the year.

We don’t know exactly what the date will be……yet ….. but it always falls around the same time in late October. In 2023 it was October 27^th.

By targeting this date in their marketing, agents can hope to attract more of those urgent or ‘itchy feet’ sellers eager to secure buyers for their properties before the Christmas holiday kicks in.

Property market forecasters are predicting a strong Autumn selling season this year and the latest round of statistics from RICS and Rightmove show transaction levels are up already – earlier than normal after the usual August slow-down.

According to the latest Rightmove House Price Index, estate agency stock has hit a 10-year high as falling mortgage rates boost buyer demand and give sellers renewed confidence.

Set to be a busy time

Average prices of property coming to the market for sale has increased by 0.8% this month, rising 1.2% annually to £370,759, up by £2,974.

RICS reported that house price expectations over the next 12 months among agents and surveyors have turned positive for the first time in two years.

Their latest Residential Market Survey shows a net balance figure of +1 expect house prices to go up in the next 12 months.

That might seem like small beer, but it is up significantly from the reading of -18% last month and the first time that the data has been positive since the aftermath of the 2022 Truss and Kwarteng mini-Budget that triggered a financial shock which sent mortgage rates soaring and caused lenders to withdraw hundreds of products.

The economy has recovered considerably in the last couple of years but we still face the prospect of what the new Labour government has warned will be a ‘painful’ Autumn Budget on October 30.

But the government has also pledged that the ‘heaviest burden will be carried by those with the broadest shoulders’ as warnings abound to watch out for increases in capital gains and inheritance tax rates.

Would-be house owners will be hoping for the first signs of the government’s flagship housing policy, the Freedom To Buy Scheme.

The Party has promised to get an extra 80,000 people on to the housing ladder by the end of this Parliament by extending the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme and making it permanent (it is due to expire next June).

All will be revealed at the end of next month but would-be house-owners will be hoping that Labour will use this first Budget to begin making progress on its manifesto pledge.

The last quarter of 2024 looks set to be a busy time for agents. And they will need to keep their marketing campaigns going full blast to ensure they get their fair share of the additional property market activity which could be boosted further by another cut in the Bank of England Base Rate heavily tipped for later in the year.

To find out more about how your agency can make the most of every opportunity, nurture your database and get in touch with leads as soon as they’re generated, get in touch!