Rightmove, the UK’s largest property portal online, had its record for website visits in one month broken in January, in a sign that experts say shows a jump in market confidence.
In that month alone, traffic to the website surpassed 152 million visits for the first time. In one day, on the 29th, the website had 5.7 million visits – up some 9% on the previous record set almost a year ago.
In good signs for homeowners, this signals an increasing level of interest and confidence in the UK property market as, according to Rightmove’s statement, “home-hunters looked to take advantage of a more certain political outlook.”
Importantly, other website data backs up this claim, with time spent by each visitor on the website rising by 4% on the previous month – meaning a total of over 1 billion minutes on the site.
Rightmove’s property expert Miles Shipside said that reports from agents show sales and valuations have slightly increased as well.
“There’s still an imbalance, with demand growing at a faster rate than new supply and no clear sign yet of any uplift in new listings compared to this time last year, but we could see a new wave of sellers in the coming weeks.”
Rightmove also published data on the rise or fall in sales year-on-year for January, listing by region. In this table, ‘sales agreed’ refers to an agent marking a property as under offer or Sold Subject to Contract:
But what does this mean for borrowers? The best option is to speak to a mortgage broker about how this may affect the market and what it means for your personal circumstance.
Not sure what market confidence means for your mortgage? Think Plutus.
